my mum went to southend last year and paid and displayed her parking ticket. during her walk around said grotty town, she was given a parking fine as the ticket was not displayed correctly. a hot day, she left the windows slightly open to stop it cooking in the car and the wind blew the ticket down the front of the dash and only 2/3 was visable.

obviously she argued this case took several photos and took it to court where it was upheld which is a joke! the evidence speaks for itself and there must have been cctv footage confirming the purchase of the ticket.

my dad is positive he paid the fine after the court hearing.

last week, 2 debt collectors turned up un announced at my parents house, came onto private property and proceded to put a clamp on my mums car at 8am. when she came out of the house and saw her car she was being video recorded by one of the men and was being very forcefully instructed to pay up. (she made a recording of the guy on her iphone) typical thugish belittling behaviour. they demanded nearly £700 and even had an electronic card reader with them which my mum in the end had no choice to pay as she needed to get to work.

is this legal practice that no further warning letters be sent or a warrant of some form being given by the courts? i was not there but i feel my mum may have been subjected to a scam. even the clap was a rusty old lump of junk with a mobile number written down it in pen. if anyone can give me any advice on this and what if anything we should do now i would be greatful.

thank you.

It was actually Extortion,

take legal advice & the Solicitor as a Court Officer should be reporting it to the Court.

I take it the Debt was being collected on behalf of the Local Authority.

Get a Letter & Email off to the Council leader telling him/her what illegal actions are being carried out on their behalf.

** Or was it a Private Company that issued the 'Parking Charge' & argued their case in Court',

What did the Court Order & how much & was there costs?.

What Does your Mums Invoice say the charges are for Costs and Collections & does she have the reciept?

?? Does your Dad pay lots of Parking Fines/Charges after Court hearings, so forgets which he paid or did not,

and does he 'pay them in cash',

does he not keep reciepts that he receives?

george

I'm pretty certain at the very least a letter has to be sent warning of debt collectors if debt isn't paid within a certain timeframe.

Personally, i would have got some powertools out my garage and removed it myself. They can't legally clamp your car if it's parked legally in the street. Make sure she takes this rogue scummy local authority/parking company and/or the debt collectors to court.

Local authority has some powers when it comes to parking regulation ... I think up to immobilising or seizing the vehicle.

I think for £700 I'd have left the car on the drive and called Hertz or similar. Then tried to unravel what had occurred in my own time.

J.

It was actually Extortion,

take legal advice & the Solicitor as a Court Officer should be reporting it to the Court.

I take it the Debt was being collected on behalf of the Local Authority.

Get a Letter & Email off to the Council leader telling him/her what illegal actions are being carried out on their behalf.

** Or was it a Private Company that issued the 'Parking Charge' & argued their case in Court',

What did the Court Order & how much & was there costs?.

What Does your Mums Invoice say the charges are for Costs and Collections & does she have the reciept?

?? Does your Dad pay lots of Parking Fines/Charges after Court hearings, so forgets which he paid or did not,

and does he 'pay them in cash',

does he not keep reciepts that he receives?

george

I have not yet seen the invoice and what it says but the fact they had a card reader made me very suspicious. I have told her to contact the bank and report the transaction as suspiscious if only to prevent them from gaining access to the funds for a little while while i work out what has gone on.

the ticket was issued by the local council i believe.

my dad has unfortunatly had a pretty tough 12 months, he was made redundant, they reposessed the house he was renovating for him and my mum to retire too and then he spent a bit of time in hospital after colapsing a few times and was diagnosed with a condition similar to parkinsons, so with all that going on, remembering a parking fine payment is pretty tough i guess :(

i would have thought that for them to gain access to private property and imobilize and seize goods in that way they would have to produce a warrant or have the police with them to enforce such notice? powertools would have been my approach although i do have some slimline sockets which i could have used to remove the wheel and put the spare on chucking the clamp in the boot, but my mum was so shocked she didnt think to call me.

All the best with it.

Having a card reader is not unusual, they are 'Money Collectors', the payment was made and will be processed.

They checked the payment from the card was authorised before leaving it at that.

Take the Legal advice from a law firm, the first 'meeting' should be free.

'They' had powers,'they' were collecting a Debt due,

(but they are only allowed to collect the true 'debt due' and fair charges.

they' are licenced to do this, or should be.

(can be Court Officers or the Agents of, but these guys sound like Cowboys, & the Court should take a very dim view of their actions and behaviour)

I believe they 'went beyond their legal powers', which is why i said in my first post 'Extortion'.

They can seize goods if they are 'bailiffs' or have been given the powers to identify property to the value etc.

But 'these guys' did not follow any 'legal procedures' to 'recover' the losses or 'monies due'

A Solicitor is the one to advise, and tell you your legal position and what actions can be taken by your Mother now.

i only know ever little detail of Scottish Law for these circumstances, which is different,

But i know that there actions broke so many English Laws.

good luck.

george

Look at threads here for info on how to deal with this.

If possible park your cars elsewhere for a while until its sorted, to make sure they can't clamp them again.

I had something similar happen to me last year. The local town council hadn't received any council tax for two years. Coincidentally, SWMBO and I had moved in a month prior and payed the CT with no issues. I had proof but they hadn't noted that lol. So, one fine Friday afternoon, debt collectors turned up at my door saying I owed them circa £2600 if backward taxes and promptly clamped my car. I called the tax office for them to say "no payments have been made". I gave the MY account number and they went "oh" followed by "I'm sorry Mr Smythe. There seems to have been an error. We will get this sorted!". Debt collectors wouldn't remove said clamp and I said well the car will be needed tonight...if you leave it on it will be removed by the time they came back. They said try it and left so I angle grinded it off and carried on regardless .

They never came to collect their clamp and I got a £300 refund from the council for my troubles.

Chris