Help with Philips Baliff's

[barney11]

Hi,

I moved house about a year ago and missed a court fine which was posted to my old address (for having a young persons railcard ticket with out carrying my railcard) i got a letter from Philips baliffs today at my new address which was a notice of a distress warrant.

I am currently on JSA and after social fund repayments etc are taken out i get roughly 35-40 pound a week i am currently paying another court fine so am left with about 25-30 a week after that which is then used for food gas and electric etc.

I called Philips as soon as i got the letter to try and arrange a payment plan, i can offer 30 a month and even that is a stretch but i want to get it paid off and sorted. Philips have said the absolute least they will accept is 90 a month or 20 a week. i owe 410.50.

I just want to know if i have any legal way of bringing the installments down? i don't want to avoid paying anything i accept i did wrong and have to pay the fine but i physically don't have 90 a month to pay even if i wanted to.

Thanks in advance

[Guest]

Re: Help with Philips Baliff's

If you have no money, no assets the bailiff the bailiff can get his hands on, then you can ask the court for a means test and offer to pay in installments of £5 a week.

The bailiff cannot take what you haven't got. Contact the court manager and ask to be means tested.

If your request is refused, then make a note of the persons name and position, and keep the bailiff out of your house.

The bailiff will eventually, in about 90 days, return the case to court, and you may be summonsed to appear before the court to answer why you have not paid the fine. You say to the magistrate, or district judge, you "asked the court manger to be means tested and the request was refused". Your can also say that request was made because you are "living below the government poverty threshold".

The district judge can commute the fine to a community order, such as an ASBO or unpaid work etc. However, and this is the curious bit, the bailiffs fees mysteriously disappear. The district judge never orders you to pay the bailiffs fees. There is actually no court procedure for it.

If you are summonsed (or arrested, which is rare) for non payment of a court fine, then you have another opportunity to ask the court to be means tested.

You only go to prison if you REFUSE to pay, and in any event, the Sentencing Council has recently issued an advisory to district judges sitting as magistrates not to commit defendants. HM prison service is reeling from budget cute.