Speeding fine & Marston

[Thailander]

Had a £115 for speeding, I was going away for 6mths so send an email to the court asking to send all correspondence via email. They confirmed by email that they would. I went online to pay- I presumed that it went through as I didnt have any chase up emails from the court. This was all going back to February.

Monday gone, had an frantic email from my Mother(I'm 7 hours ahead), to say that she's been to my house and noticed a calling card from Marston saying that they intended to call back to force entry. She called them, told them I was out of the country. They told her that unless it was paid immediatley they would force entry at 6am the following morning and take my goods. Knowing full well that this gave her no time to contact me or the court. She felt presured and paid. It was £1,045.

As far as I'm aware...Forced entry can only be made if they know I'm in the property, they knew full well this was impossible as I was over 7,000 miles away. It says in Marstons introduction that they cannot speak to a 3rd part unless they have written authority. But they spoke to my mother and took payment from her.

Fortunatley I have that email from the magistrates who were aware that I was away and they confirmed they would deal with me via email .

I've asked Marsten for the recording of the conversation they had with my mother. And have sent an email to the court. But realisticly what are my chances here of being refunded and only paying the origional £115?

[dementedfeline]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

The obvious question is can you prove from bank statements that the original payment went through?

[Thailander]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

No I can't ...I tried to make payment via a credit card. I've had this before when I thought payment had gone through... I'm making the payment from abroad, and sometimes payments are stopped. I presumed that as I didnt have a chase up from the magistrates that payment had gone through.

My question was more related to the fact that the magistrates knew I was away and had to send all correspondence via email, and the way Marston went about this.

[dementedfeline]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

ok, I don't know the procedure on speeding fines re correspondence so I don't know whether you should have expected to either get an acknowledgement or alternatively, if you didn't pay/the payment failed, whether the procedure allows for further chasing letters. You need to ask the court or maybe other members on here will know. BUT you will need to be prepared to defend the fact that you didn't make sure that the payment had gone through - i.e. when you received the next statement and it didn't show on it why didn't you do something then in terms of chasing it up?

Can you contact the credit card company to see if they have any record of you ATTEMPTING to make the payment? Confirmation that they blocked it?

Marstons would not be bound by any agreement as to form of correspondence that the court had agreed to, I don't think.

[bluebottle]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

Agree with DF as to proof of payment. However, on the face of it, it appears that the court may have cocked-up, in which case you need to contact the Court Manager to find out what has happened. If you get no joy, you should refer the matter to -

H.M. Courts & Tribunals Service
Correspondence Complaints & Litigation Unit
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

The most Marstons can charge under the terms of their contract with HMCTS is £300 on top of the fine. In your case, this should be no more than £415. So where do they get £1045 from?

As such, Marstons have breached the Data Protection Act 1998 by discussing the matter with your mother and you could report this to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). However, due to the fact fault appears to lie with HMCTS, I would be inclined to pursue this with HMCTS in the first instance.

As for the fees, Marstons need to explain where they get £1,045 from or repay £630 to your mother PDQ. If it transpires Marstons should not have been instructed in the first place, they owe your mother £930 - £1,045

[ploddertom]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

Do you have the correct figures as I cannot see how a fine of £115 has elevated to over £1k?

Do you know if the Court send any letters out prior to the Bailiffs being involved?

[Thailander]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

The magistrates have been in touch with Marston and are making a full refund. Basically they didn't have a leg to stand on as I kept the email from them confriming that they knew I was away, and they had to deal with me via email.

However, I'm still very annoyed with Maston and I will be persuing them.

They lied to my mother, by saying that they were going to enter the property with force at 8am the folowing morning. Legally they could not have done this as it would have been impossible for me to be at the property. My mother told them that I was abroad. Even when I called them, and wanted confirmation that they could enter the property, they said they would have, beacuse they already put a locksmiths card through the letter box ! There is also a DPA issue here (as they spoke to my mother) so I will be taking it up with the 'Information Commissioner Office'( Thanks Wolfhound for that) .

I can't belive how these companies act in such an unprofesional illegal way- and are instructed by the courts! I've spent a few hours now googling Marston and there are many many stories similar to mine. Why are the courts still using them?

Thank you to everyone that responded to this. I hope this will be usefull to others in dealing with these crooks called Marston.

[bizzybob]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

Marstons are becoming as overconfident, arrogant, and stupid as Sherfarce.

[bluebottle]

Re: Speeding fine & Marston

The magistrates have been in touch with Marston and are making a full refund. Basically they didn't have a leg to stand on as I kept the email from them confriming that they knew I was away, and they had to deal with me via email.

However, I'm still very annoyed with Maston and I will be persuing them.

They lied to my mother, by saying that they were going to enter the property with force at 8am the folowing morning. Legally they could not have done this as it would have been impossible for me to be at the property. My mother told them that I was abroad. Even when I called them, and wanted confirmation that they could enter the property, they said they would have, beacuse they already put a locksmiths card through the letter box ! There is also a DPA issue here (as they spoke to my mother) so I will be taking it up with the 'Information Commissioner Office'( Thanks Wolfhound for that) .

I can't belive how these companies act in such an unprofesional illegal way- and are instructed by the courts! I've spent a few hours now googling Marston and there are many many stories similar to mine. Why are the courts still using them?

Thank you to everyone that responded to this. I hope this will be usefull to others in dealing with these crooks called Marston.

You're welcome, Thailander. The ICO has the power to fine those who breach the Data Protection Act 1998 up to £500,000. You might wish to mention this to Marston when you contact them.

The person you should contact at Marstons is Gareth Hughes, who is the CEO. His email address is gareth.hughes@marstongroup.co.uk .

I would also be inclined to bring this to the attention of H.M. Court & Tribunals Service Correspondence Complaints and Litigation Unit as what happened, as well as bungling on the part of the staff at the magistrates court, a distress warrant was issued when, potentially, there were no grounds in law for doing so.

Also, it would be prudent for your mother to bring the incident to the attention of their MP. This needs pursuing with the Minister responsible for HMCTS, if only to initiate action to ensure this sort of thing does not happen to anyone else.