Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

[Adamna]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Another unfortunate victim of North East Lincolnshire Council.

Rossendales demand £1,463.26 where no debt exists.

The council spokesperson gave such a useless and unhelpful response.
"Usually in cases like this the customer would be advised to contact the bailiff directly."
Engage with bailiffs? I don't think so.
"We changed the way we deal with council tax enquiries in July this year and customer services staff no longer have access to people's accounts or claim information."
Customer services no longer serve customers. I'm sure they charge for them in summons costs though.
"We do make appointments for people in complex cases or where a customer is considered vulnerable."
They made the simple case complex, and they didn't make an appointment.
"It is a legal requirement for people to let us know about changes in circumstances, such as a change of address, and this can also be done online."
I think the poor soul did let them know. Correction, can only be done online, it seems.

Dystopia at its finest.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Another unfortunate victim of North East Lincolnshire Council.

Rossendales demand £1,463.26 where no debt exists.

[Crazy council]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Hi
[MENTION=8136]outlawlgo[/MENTION] Just for your info, " of the people your dealing with are straight, ( ie not involved or complacent )

Graham Townie , hes quite a polite chap, caught up in whats going on but not involved or a facilitator,,

Judge Curtis, He only started here in 2009, he actually replaced one of the weirdo's, hes a tough judge, but again, not involved, and doesn't know about how CTY and NNDR accounts were processed prior 2010.

wrereas, If you can get an answer from

Mr Fumble ( not quite his name but appropriate ) head of majistrates
Mr Weasel ... Clark
The woman manager ( dont wish to name her atm )

That would be interesting, becuase what your dealing with, is directly in there remit.. and there job to make sure the courts not being used like that.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

From: outlawlgo
To: jodie.morris@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
Sent: 19 September 2016
Attach: Legal team manager 14 Sept 16.pdf
Subject: Grimsby Magistrates' court Complaint - 11 August 2016

Dear Mrs Morris,

Re: Grimsby Magistrates' court Complaint - 11 August 2016

I am escalating my complaint to you as I consider that Mr Townell has failed to address the points raised objectively and focussed on elements he has been able to claim HMCTS has no remit to intervene.

The response (attached) is little more than a chronology of some carefully chosen issues raised in my complaint which also functions to misrepresent my concerns to be matters relating to judicial decisions as opposed the administration of HMCTS.

Documentation concerning complaints made to the police, Council etc. etc., have been included to give the fullest account of the failings and the degree to which I have been affected as a direct result of the court's failure to take seriously the allegations of perjury, fraud etc., which would have been avoided had someone taken responsibility.

There would be little advantage in going through all the issues which haven't been considered in the response as I would in effect simply be re-submitting the same complaint in another form.

The only new information I have as a result of the complaint is the Magistrates' court's reasons for not reopening the case under section 142 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. The response informs me that the reason was because I had expressed that I didn't consider District Judge Curtis to be a fit and proper person to hear the trial and that the court as a whole should be investigated for complicity in defrauding the public, not as I had been previously informed, simply because I deliberately chose not to attend the trial.

These accusations were not trivial and indicate that the court has been negligent in both failing to reopen the case for reasons put forward in my representations and not considering it appropriate to refer the matter to the police.

I believe at this stage of the complaints procedure HMCTS aims to reply within 10 working days.

Yours sincerely

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Without explanation, a sum has been deducted from the overall amount outstanding on my Council Tax account (not paid by me). The observation that the balance had been reduced by £91 was made on 7 September 2016. The council seems to have oddly credited an amount which I'm not disputing.

Again, without explanation, my account has been meddled with. This time a sum has been added to the overall amount outstanding on my Council Tax account. The council seems to have taken back the £91 it credited last week.

As North East Lincolnshire Council has admitted to monitoring this thread it must have learned about its error from a previous post.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Another outcome to another 'sham' complaint's procedure:

Julie Collins
Courts and Tribunals Manager,
Humber & South Yorkshire
Grimsby Magistrates' Court
Victoria Street
Grimsby

14th September 2016

Dear outlawlgo

Re: Complaint Letter dated 11 August 2016

I have now had the opportunity to read through the documentation you have sent to the Customer Services department, including the additional pages sent on 5 September 2016.

The two main matters you complain about are the decision of the court to issue a liability order against you in council tax enforcement proceedings and the decision of the court to convict you of a public order offence.

While I can understand your frustration I am unable to intervene in or change the outcome of your cases. This is because judicial decisions have been made and judges are independent of the administration of HM Courts and Tribunals Service. If you consider the decisions to be wrong then you should consider appealing the decisions. If you are aggrieved by the way the judge has behaved towards you can lodge a complaint with the relevant office.

You are clearly already aware of these avenues as you mention in your correspondence to North East Lincolnshire Council in October 2015 that you have appealed a previous decision to issue a liability order against you. You also made a complaint about the District Judge to the Judicial Complaints Investigations Office in November 2015.

In respect of your conviction at this court on 15 December 2015 you were told that you could appeal to the Crown Court and you were clearly informed about the time limits for that appeal.

You chose not to attend court for your trial on 15 December 2015, saying in effect that you did not consider District Judge Curtis to be a fit and proper person to hear your trial and that the court as a whole should be investigated for complicity in defrauding the public. It was because of this that the court felt that it was not appropriate to reopen your case under section 142 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980.

[SECURITY CLASSIFICATION]

You submitted your appeal against conviction in April 2016 but your application to appeal out of time was refused by the Crown Court judge. I cannot comment on that as once again that was a decision made by a judge.

The court set up a hearing for you to attend to apply to take out a private prosecution against a member of the police force but you decided not to attend and the matter was dealt with by a Deputy District Judge in your absence.

Much of your documentation concerns complaints made to both the police and North East Lincolnshire Council and I am not able to comment on that.

In conclusion having considered your complaint I do not accept that the court has failed to address the issues you have raised in the past. I do not accept that the court has, in your words, 'fobbed off' criminal accusations made by you against both the court and the District Judge. The court has informed you of the different routes of appeal and responded to your queries to the best of its ability.

If you are not content with this response you can escalate your complaint to my line manager, Mrs Jodie Morris.

Yours sincerely,


Graeme Townell
Legal Team Manager
Grimsby Magistrates' Court

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

From 21 March 2016, Complaint to LGO

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BODY SHOULD DO TO PUT THINGS RIGHT?

The council was not entitled to allocate payment to the balance it did and therefore it should be reallocated to the account to which it was intended.

According to the council, there is an outstanding sum of £211 in respect of my 2015/16 council tax liability. If the effects of the error were put right, it would require that the misallocated payment of £60 is reallocated to the 2015/16 account (restoring the previous outstanding balance); the £60 penalty added September 2015 would have been invalid and so require removing from my account. The remaining sum outstanding would be £91 which I would then be able to settle without fear of further maladministration attributable to the council allocating it wrongly.

Without explanation, a sum has been deducted from the overall amount outstanding on my Council Tax account (not paid by me). The observation that the balance had been reduced by £91 was made on 7 September 2016. The council seems to have oddly credited an amount which I'm not disputing.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Hi @outlawlgo

Did you ever get to the bottom of the 'where did Form A, (or it's replacement), go' issue?

(Re Liability Orders)

Just looked at a thread I contributed on regarding this subject ( Who produces a liability order ) and haven't come across any further information regarding the standardised form which was supposed to replace the de-prescribed ones, A & B.

However, the provision for a Liability Order to deal either with a single person or more than one person was not affected by the amendment which de-prescribed the forms.

As far as I'm aware the current regulations state as follows:

A single liability order may deal with one person and one such amount (or aggregate amount) as is mentioned in regulation 34(7) and (8), or, if the court thinks fit, may deal with more than one person and more than one such amount.

[charitynjw]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Hi @outlawlgo

Did you ever get to the bottom of the 'where did Form A, (or it's replacement), go' issue?

(Re Liability Orders)

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Update regarding the 'sham' internal investigation into the council's shenanigans.

A letter raising concerns about the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officers was sent to the Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council on 10 August. ( Misconduct in Public Office 10 Aug 2016 )

A reply dated 11 August is obviously another fob-off letter..... ( 11 August 2016 Council Leader - Redact )

Our ref: RO/seh/0193

11 August 2016

Dear Mr outlawlgo

I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 10^th August 2016 .

In view of the serious nature of your serious allegations against senior officers of the Council I will be referring the matter to Humberside Police. The Council will consider its position in the light of the police response and any findings arising from the outstanding complaints you have lodged with the Information Commissioner's Office. In the meantime, the Council will not be making any further comment on the matter.

Yours sincerely


Ray Oxby
Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council

Municipal Offices, Town Hall Square, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN31 1HU
Telephone (01472) 325905
Email : ray.oxby@nelincs.gov.uk

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

From: <A.Hobley@coinweb.lgo.org.uk>
To: <outlawlgo>
Sent: 12 August 2016 13:28
Attach: ATT00268.txt
Subject: Confidential: Case ID - 15020295

12 August 2016

Our ref: 15 020 295
(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

Dear Mr outlawlgo,

I am in receipt of the documents and the new complaint form you have sent us. This is the same issue that Mr Upjohn decide and about which we have already correspondence. So it is not a new complaint and we will take no further action.

To repeat what I said in my last mail to you. As a publicly funded body we cannot justify continuing to correspondence about complaints we have decided. You have been told how to ask for a review of the decision on your case. If you do that we will respond to you. We will also reply to any legal action or DPA/FOI requests. Other than that any further correspondence from you about this complaint will be read, but not acknowledged or replied to.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Hobley
Assessment Team Leader
0330 403 4725
LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Another LGO complaint submitted (11 August) raising an issue of Misconduct in Public Office.

If you want to upload a file in support of your complaint you can do so below

File 1 Misconduct-in-Public-Office-10-Aug-2016.pdf

What do you think the body did wrong?

The Council fraudulently obtained a council tax liability order by committing perjury (lying in a witness statement to the court). There was no debt owing, however, the Council criminally engineered a non-payment scenario.

Correspondence was entered into with the Council’s Monitoring Officer, Mr Maione, to ensure that the fraud allegations were investigated internally by the audit and assurance team. Mr Maione seemed reluctant to deal with the matter and implied a threat in an email sent 18 May 2016 by stating that making allegations including perjury which were found to be unsubstantiated and/or not evidenced was a serious matter.

All relevant correspondence has been compiled chronologically and provided in the attachment to this complaint (Misconduct in Public Office 10 Aug 2016.pdf).

The formal complaint made to the Council is in fact the email dated 27 June 2016 in the attachment (page 55 & 56) in which it was complained about having no details of the investigation when asked for. It is considered there was no requirement to progress to a second stage because the Council's response made it clear in its reply dated 1 July 2016 in the attachment (page 57) that it would not be corresponding any further on the issue.

How has this affected you?

By looking the other way when the fraud brought to their attention, the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officers have enabled staff within the Council’s Revenues & Benefits to impose further unwarranted charges by appointing bailiffs Rossendales to enforce the liability order that was obtained by lying to the court about money that is not owed.

The injustice takes a more serious twist in that the Council had not as you would have expected considered it a narrow escape to have got away with being the subject of a criminal investigation, but emboldened it to take further liberties with the law and seen it as a green light to continue taking steps to recover the sum. It can only reasonably be assumed that because it was ultimately the judge's responsibility for wrongly granting permission, the council would deem it appropriate to exploit that decision regardless of being aware it was not entitled to the sum being pursued.

Whilst there is still no sight of a resolution, the fraudulent charges continue increasing (currently around £540) and the bailiff firm does not intend to cease enforcement on account of the monies not being owed. It is likely when the bailiffs have to refer the case back to the Council on being unsuccessful, the Council will only have available to it under the fraudulently obtained order the option of committal.

This failure to apply lawful and proportionate decision making, hence not taking the correct remedy has led to years of injustice mostly in the form of time consuming and fruitless disputes i.e., formal complaints, escalation of issues to the LGO, police, police appeals and entering into a private prosecution against the police for negligence by improperly exercising police powers under Section 26 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.

What do you think the body should do to put things right?

It is unlikely these failings are unique to NELC, and so it would be satisfying if in respect of the inordinate amount of time that has been wasted, if lessons learned from this complaint are also learned by all local authorities and other government departments which similarly cause hardship for members of the public. Considering the destructive effect such failings can have on people’s lives (including health), there would be merit in debating in parliament the difficulties members of the public face dealing with public bodies.

The outcome is not one that is solely seeking to resolve the issues. It is also reasonable that an offer is made for compensation. However, any consolatory payment, whatever level will go nowhere near a realistic sum to compensate for the hundreds of hours spent as a consequence of these circumstances over several years.

In order that the Government is seen to be serious about reforming mismanagement in councils, it would be appropriate for parliament to consider enacting new or amending existing legislation so that matters as serious as these can be severely dealt with. Where an individual faces these prospects, the introduction of them would likely be an effective deterrent against improper conduct.

Such a threat could also be what is needed for a would-be offender to think twice about using their public office to carry out personal vendettas and that it is unacceptable and disproportionate to subject an aggrieved taxpayer to such gross injustice and inconvenience.

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Rossendales has completed its investigation and provided a resolution.

14 July 2016

Thank you for your email dated 12th July.

As you are aware we act upon the instructions of NE Lincs Council to recover monies owed for unpaid Council Tax after a Liability Order was issued against you in a court of law. As I'm sure you can appreciate when a matter has reached this stage our client requires us to execute the Liability Order and recover a debt promptly and effectively.

We wrote to you on 11th May to advise of our involvement and offered a 14 day grace period in which the matter could be resolved without incurring statutory fees. As we received no reply the 'Notice of Enforcement' that was served upon you on 25th May advise further of our lawful involvement, the fee schedule, (set in law), that would now apply as recovery action is taken and asked you to urgently contact us. With no contact nor payment from you we wrote to you again twice.

I have noted from your email that you dispute your liability in respect of this matter. The Council however does not regard the matter as in dispute and their instructions to us remain to collect the full balance. Please contact us with your proposals to discharge this debt in order to prevent further action.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Davies.
Complaints Team
Rossendales Limited

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Complaint acknowledgement from Rossendales – complete surprise as one hasn't been submitted. They obviously mistook advice to claim compensation off the council as a complaint.

Date: 13 July 2016

Dear Sir/Madam,


North East Lincolnshire Council C Tax - TCE

Thank you for letting us know about your concerns.

We are sorry to learn that you are not happy. We take the concerns you have raised very seriously and will look into them carefully.

We will give your complaint our full attention and make sure that it is dealt with by someone with the right knowledge and experience.

We will investigate your concerns and we may contact you to gather further information. We will ensure that we can answer any queries and address your complaint in full. Once we have completed our investigation we will provide you with a resolution.

Full details of our complaints procedure which details how we deal with complaints and the steps we follow, can be found at http://www.Rossendales.com.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on the number above.

Yours faithfully

Complaints Manager

[outlawlgo]

Re: Misallocating payments and ignoring email to exploit Magistrates court costs

Final threatening letter; Rossendales "FINAL REMINDER - DO NOT IGNORE"

It must be because the police have orders from the top to turn a blind eye to whatever local authorities get up to that they think they can get away with adding spurious fees (or threatening to). Consequently, even though no goods have been taken control of (unless a random car has), they're threatening that i'll be immediately liable for further enforcement costs (£110) when the Enforcement Agent attends (total £420). With the unwarranted summons costs of £120, they are demanding a total £540 that is not owed.

Rossendales

PO Box 324
Rossendale
BB4 0GE

Client: North East Lincolnshire Council - Council Tax
Outstanding Amount: £521.00
Reference Number: 550xxxxx
Our Reference: 28628956
Date: 11th July 2016

FINAL REMINDER - DO NOT IGNORE

Dear outlawlgo

	North East Lincolnshire Council amount		£211.00
	Enforcement Costs incurred		£310.00
	Paid		£0.00
	Total Amount Due:		£521.00

Despite previous correspondence you have not made payment to clear the overdue balance above.

When the Enforcement Agent attends with the intention to take control of and remove your goods for the purpose of sale you will be immediately liable for further enforcement costs as detailed on the back of this letter.

In order to avoid the removal of your goods you must contact us immediately on 0844 701 3980

NO FURTHER REMINDERS WILL BE ISSUED

Please ensure that all correspondence/payments quote our-reference number and your name and address.

Yours Faithfully

Enforcement Agent Manager