This is my Experience on Thursday 9th April, a first brush with bailffs from Newlyns
I’m newly divorced. My ex-wife retained the family home in East Sussex and the kids live there when home from university. I have moved into East London Last Thursday an Enforcement Agent working for Newlyns visited the family property. My son (20yrs) was the only one home. He was told by the burly, overbearing Man that he was an ‘Enforcement Agent’ and that that meant he was a ‘law enforcement officer’ of the court and that he had a ‘Warrant of Control’ that entitled him to enter the property and to seize assets to the value authorised by the ‘Warrant of Control’. My son was coerced into believing he had the right to enter the home and so let him in. It’s a bullying tactic and unfairly exercised on an impressionable 20 year old. The amount owed was £512 in respect to a £50 congestion charge penalty. Half of the charge was billed by the Enforcement Agent and is an excessive profit .
The congestion charge penalty was a valid charge to me, but I had missed all the correspondence due to the break-up of our family and divorce.
My son phoned me and sounded scared. The attitude of the man from Newlyns to my somewhat bewildered son was overbearing and unnecessary pugnacious aggression. It was the first time either of us had come across the terms of ‘Warrant of Control’ and ‘Enforcement Agent’ and we were both trying to quickly get up to speed with what was happening. I suggested calling the police, but the Man from Newlyns assured us both that the police would uphold the order of the court.
He told me the Man was burly and was traipsing through the house checking-out our family belongings and my son felt absolutely defenceless.
I asked to speak to the gentleman on the phone, who, before introducing himself, immediately told me he had come to seize assets.
I asked him for his name and some form of identification to be shown my son. His name was Mr. Teague. He could not provide identification, but instead advised me to phone Brighton County Court to validate who he was. The number he gave me 01273 674421 was not answered on the six times that i tried calling it.
He told me that he worked for Newlyns Plc. I have checked with Newlyns Plc and they could not corroborate him.
I asked him for his legal authority to be shown to my son and he said a Warrant of Control had been issued, but he did not have it with him. He showed my son a poor photocopy of a warrant but my son could not identify either my name, address nor Mr Teague’s name as Enforcement Officer written on the copy.
I told Mr. Teague, on the phone, that the assets at the house belonged to my wife following our divorce and that the penalty order was against me. I meant this to be a gesture to allay the threats to seize family assets. He told me that i needed to prove it there and then, to prevent him from seizing them - a rather unreasonable request since my son does not have access to our divorce papers.
I asked him for some flexibility, that if i could corroborate his identification with the Brighton court number that he had given me, then i would pay the amount due by credit card. Mr. Teague became belligerent on this matter and telling me that if i couldn’t pay immediately then he would seize property from the house. He was combative and opinionated particularly concerning the law. He further suggested and then demanded that my son pay the fine. I insisted that i wanted to check his identity first.
In the time that i was trying to phone Brighton council, my son told me that Mr Teague was making antagonistic calls to his manager which i believe were deliberately cantankerous for my son’s benefit to alarm him about which furniture they were going to take. My son was afraid by the thuggish indifference to the family home as he wandered around each room and unnerved by the size of the man. By the time i had managed tp phone them back after drawing a blank on his identification, my son had taken it upon himself to pay the outstanding sum of £512.
We are law abiding citizens and i have brought my children up to respect the law and especially those that serve the community as a whole. This process has caught us out during my wife and my separation and divorce - not that it wasn’t important, but it has now cast a deep shadow over us all. The process that was executed last Thursday morning cannot be right - not least i should have been able to check Mr Teague’s ID and i should have been able to settle by my credit card without overbearing threats of violating our property.
The case is compounded from a £50 penalty by costing £512 - half of which is pocketed by Mr Teague himself.
Is this thuggery really the conduct of service that is approved by a civilised community, supervised by our legal system?
Does anyone have any advice of how I can take my complaint further? If there is a complaints process i should like to raise it for the record.
I’m newly divorced. My ex-wife retained the family home in East Sussex and the kids live there when home from university. I have moved into East London Last Thursday an Enforcement Agent working for Newlyns visited the family property. My son (20yrs) was the only one home. He was told by the burly, overbearing Man that he was an ‘Enforcement Agent’ and that that meant he was a ‘law enforcement officer’ of the court and that he had a ‘Warrant of Control’ that entitled him to enter the property and to seize assets to the value authorised by the ‘Warrant of Control’. My son was coerced into believing he had the right to enter the home and so let him in. It’s a bullying tactic and unfairly exercised on an impressionable 20 year old. The amount owed was £512 in respect to a £50 congestion charge penalty. Half of the charge was billed by the Enforcement Agent and is an excessive profit .
The congestion charge penalty was a valid charge to me, but I had missed all the correspondence due to the break-up of our family and divorce.
My son phoned me and sounded scared. The attitude of the man from Newlyns to my somewhat bewildered son was overbearing and unnecessary pugnacious aggression. It was the first time either of us had come across the terms of ‘Warrant of Control’ and ‘Enforcement Agent’ and we were both trying to quickly get up to speed with what was happening. I suggested calling the police, but the Man from Newlyns assured us both that the police would uphold the order of the court.
He told me the Man was burly and was traipsing through the house checking-out our family belongings and my son felt absolutely defenceless.
I asked to speak to the gentleman on the phone, who, before introducing himself, immediately told me he had come to seize assets.
I asked him for his name and some form of identification to be shown my son. His name was Mr. Teague. He could not provide identification, but instead advised me to phone Brighton County Court to validate who he was. The number he gave me 01273 674421 was not answered on the six times that i tried calling it.
He told me that he worked for Newlyns Plc. I have checked with Newlyns Plc and they could not corroborate him.
I asked him for his legal authority to be shown to my son and he said a Warrant of Control had been issued, but he did not have it with him. He showed my son a poor photocopy of a warrant but my son could not identify either my name, address nor Mr Teague’s name as Enforcement Officer written on the copy.
I told Mr. Teague, on the phone, that the assets at the house belonged to my wife following our divorce and that the penalty order was against me. I meant this to be a gesture to allay the threats to seize family assets. He told me that i needed to prove it there and then, to prevent him from seizing them - a rather unreasonable request since my son does not have access to our divorce papers.
I asked him for some flexibility, that if i could corroborate his identification with the Brighton court number that he had given me, then i would pay the amount due by credit card. Mr. Teague became belligerent on this matter and telling me that if i couldn’t pay immediately then he would seize property from the house. He was combative and opinionated particularly concerning the law. He further suggested and then demanded that my son pay the fine. I insisted that i wanted to check his identity first.
In the time that i was trying to phone Brighton council, my son told me that Mr Teague was making antagonistic calls to his manager which i believe were deliberately cantankerous for my son’s benefit to alarm him about which furniture they were going to take. My son was afraid by the thuggish indifference to the family home as he wandered around each room and unnerved by the size of the man. By the time i had managed tp phone them back after drawing a blank on his identification, my son had taken it upon himself to pay the outstanding sum of £512.
We are law abiding citizens and i have brought my children up to respect the law and especially those that serve the community as a whole. This process has caught us out during my wife and my separation and divorce - not that it wasn’t important, but it has now cast a deep shadow over us all. The process that was executed last Thursday morning cannot be right - not least i should have been able to check Mr Teague’s ID and i should have been able to settle by my credit card without overbearing threats of violating our property.
The case is compounded from a £50 penalty by costing £512 - half of which is pocketed by Mr Teague himself.
Is this thuggery really the conduct of service that is approved by a civilised community, supervised by our legal system?
Does anyone have any advice of how I can take my complaint further? If there is a complaints process i should like to raise it for the record.
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