need a lawyer urgently

[Aaggraa1]

long story...
About 13 years ago i left UK to live abroad, havent really come back to UK much ,usually visit every couple of years until 3 years ago when my father died ,then my last nan and then my sister all within 3 months. Since then i try to spend more time here with my mother and daughter and my grandchildren .
Last year(27/05/17) I received a letter from the historic fines department saying I owed £1400 in unpaid fines for 5 motoring offences , committed whilst I was out of the country
I called the historic fines dept and was advised to make a statutory declaration at magistrates court and explain my situation and why I disputed the fines.
So on 26/06/17 i went to court and told my story and was advised that they had taken over the cases and assigned a new case number ,and to ignore all letters from the historic fines dept as they had taken the fines back to their court .If I heard nothing back from them all the fines were quashed
Fast forward to this year, I arrived in UK at the end of August and received a letter from Marston the balliffs dated 06/09/18 , this enforcement letter was asking for £1200. payable by 19/09/18
I called them up and explained the situation and was told pay in full immediately or £300 that day and then £200 a day until the debt was settled...no flexibility
I then called citizens advice which was a 3 hour call and was advised to report it to Action Fraud...which I did as soon as I got off the phone with them.
I received a "crime" number from action fraud and was told to call them back in 7 days to get an update.
7 days later i called them up and was told that they cannot give me any information on the phone and to email them...I emailed and was sent a standard response that they would get back to me in 30days!
The next week or so I spent many hours trying to convince Marston the bailiffs to hold the account whilst action fraud investigated.This was refused and they just keep repeating that it will cost £235 to send someone round £110 to collect goods and how do i want to pay!
Last week the bailiff informed me that an agent would be coming to my mother address(my UK postal address)to remove goods,
Getting more and more desperate I made another call to historic fines to see if they would inform the bailiffs too hold the account until Action Fraud responded to me,They told me they cannot as it has to be the court that issued the fines to instruct them to hold the account ,and it seems that the court struck off one fine but not the other 4 so they still stand.then they could inform the bailliff to hold off
So, I tried to get the information of the courts that issued the fines and was told to get in contact with the court where I provided the statutory declaration and to do another statutory declaration.
Phoned up the court and told my rather long story to the woman that answered the phone and was told its too long a time scale from when I originally found out about the fines(27/05/17) and now so I cant do one .
I asked can you find the court documents and the statements I made last year in front of the magistrates ...apparently not ..they dont keep records!!
After explaining again and nearly begging and that this is my last option she said to write a letter to the court, their legal team would look at it and write back to me of their decision...in 5-10 days.
I went to citizens advice last Thursday and asked for a recommended solicitor to help me draught a letter to the court, I was given 2 lawyers numbers and contacted both. I waited to be contacted back ...nothing on Friday...nothing this morning so called back....both solicitors receptionists told me that the lawyers are on holiday one said earliest end of next week and the other said the week after.
Today I contacted the office of the legal guy that PHers recommend explained my situation and the urgency of my case ...and waited for someone to call me back...4 hours and nothing.
Tomorrow is my last hope of holding off the bailiff .
This is really stressing me out as not once has anyone asked for proof that I was out of the country which I can kind of prove through email trail and business bookings etc ,the fines go back to 2009.
As per the title of the thread can anyone recommend a lawyer that i could contact tomorrow who could help in my urgent matter

[vikingaero]

Don't panic. Get advice from Pepipoo, Consumer Action Group or MoneysavingExpert.

Unless there is a vehicle in your name parked outside the property, the bailiffs cannot do anything. If you have no property or assets at your mothers address then again there is little point in them visiting. If your mother is retired then again contact the bailiffs and tell them that she is a vulnerable person and they should not call.

Your mother does not have to answer the door. Make sure all doors and windows are locked. Even better tell her to go out for the day.

[Aaggraa1]

I have informed my mother of what to do, I have told Marston that its only a postal address, my mother is a pensioner etc ,
The worry is another £350 being added to a bill that I am really not wanting to pay .I was wanting to go back home (abroad) 3 weeks ago but dont want to leave this situation unresolved as I have been told a warrant for my arrest will be issued if I dont pay , and I cannot afford to be arrested leaving or returning to the country .
If say, I am not at my mums house and she is out, can the bailiff enter the property or access the shed and remove her bike ,gardening tools etc??

[Psycho Warren]

The baliffs are deliberately taking advantage of the situation with bully boy tactics. They know full well they cant take someone elses property. They are hoping the stress and your lack of knowledge about the system will mean you cough up.

They know they cant touch you when you go out the country.

[Psycho Warren]

Oh and no baliff can arrest you or get a warrant to arrest you. Only the courts can do that.

Legally they are assigned to collect the debt and debt only. If they fail or get bored it gets returned to court fines office and onky then might they decide to take it back into court to arrest you. In 9 years, in which time it will have gone through the baliff cycle a few times, they havent escalated it to why would they now?

[roadsmash]

Just pay it? Whack it on credit card.

Claim it back once everything is cleared up.

[Du1point8]

roadsmash said:

Just pay it? Whack it on credit card.

Claim it back once everything is cleared up.

What incentive is there for them to sort out a situation that has now been paid, I would be getting onto the sites mentioned above to get someone to assist.

Plus the bailiffs cant remove anything and if they just start taking stuff from a pensioners house that is used as a PO Box there will be hell to pay later and I doubt they want that.

[Schmoopy]

I am not a lawyer but have had experience of the historic debt department thanks to a monumental F*ck up on the council side and a tit of an ex. So this is and was my understanding when you make your statutory declaration at court all you are doing is re opening the case, you are not presenting your case you are not discussing the case merely saying "i didn't know about the initial court case because of x y z". It then restarts the clock as it were and the historic debt team hand it back to the courts. They then set a new court date at the original hearing court (yes a complete pain as more than likely it won't be your local court) for you to explain your case and lay out your evidence. It is then it can be over turned, or a new fine issued.
So it sounds to me like that second actual court case was what you missed and that second court case is what the bailiffs are working off? If it is your going to need a lawyer to see if it can be reopened a second time.

As i say i am not a lawyer and the whole system is a complete mine field for someone who does not know or understand the system, i kept scrupulous notes of every phone call and backed it up with a letter / email every time (to every department involved) i had a correspondence. When i went to court i went with a timeline of events (as well as my evidence) as it was difficult given the length of time that had passed for anyone to understand.

Good luck, i formerly complained to the council and the historic debt department about their conduct as they are absolutely ruthless to the point of damaging lives.

[Pro Bono]

Aaggraa1 said:

I called the historic fines dept and was advised to make a statutory declaration at magistrates court and explain my situation and why I disputed the fines.
So on 26/06/17 i went to court and told my story and was advised that they had taken over the cases and assigned a new case number ,and to ignore all letters from the historic fines dept as they had taken the fines back to their court .If I heard nothing back from them all the fines were quashed
Fast forward to this year, I arrived in UK at the end of August and received a letter from Marston the balliffs dated 06/09/18 , this enforcement letter was asking for £1200. payable by 19/09/18

It seems like you did the right thing in making the original Statutory Declaration. These are covered by section 14 Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980.

This section says that simply making the declaration makes the conviction void, so that any fines etc arising from it are automatically cancelled.

A fresh summons would then normally be issued so that you can plead not guilty and go to trial. In practice, if you can prove that you were overseas when the offences were committed (presumably by someone who had cloned your registration) it's very unlikely that fresh summonses would be issued.

So what happened after you'd made the Declaration? You say that you were told that if you heard nothing back from them all the fines were quashed, but were you ever notified of fresh proceedings, and if so what happened about them?

In particular, did you go abroad again as soon as you'd made the Declaration? If so, it's clearly possible that further summonses were issued and that you were also unaware of them, though in these circumstances if you had made no efforts to check whether any fresh summonses had been issued you would obviously be open to criticism.

The fact that they'd only cancelled one fine indicates that your Declaration may only have been made in relation to one of the offences. You should have made a separate Declaration for each of them. The reason they said it's now too late is that there's a time limit of 21 days for making a Declaration, starting with the date you found out about the conviction.

However, there is provision under section 14(3) to extend the time limit indefinitely. If this is the case, then you need to make fresh Declarations in respect of each conviction, and within the Declaration form explain your reasons for not having done so within the 21 days.

But it's crucial to clarify the position regarding what actually happened at the time you made the Declaration, and in particular (1) which of the convictions were cancelled; and (2) whether any further summonses were issued after you'd made the Declaration, and if so what happened about them. Once I know this I can offer more specific advice as to what to do.

Incidentally, the advice from Citizens' Advice to contact Action Fraud was - not unusually for CAB - utterly useless. AF are as much use as a chocolate teapot, and you'll get NO useful help from them at all..

[Truffs]

I am starting to like Pro Bono. He knows his stuff and this is what happened to me in the past and my understanding of it.

+1 for Pro Bono.

[kestral]

Why did your mum in the UK not let you know that court documents such as a NIP, summons, baliffs papers where arrivng at her house?

And why were you only finding out about the fact that your registartion had been cloned ect when you arrive back in the UK.

[Aaggraa1]

Thanks for the advice
In court when I did the stat dec, I was advised that the old case numbers were replaced by a new case number.
I only became aware of the fines etc because my mother convinced me to register at her house so I could vote on Brexit...
I had no idea about these fines before the date in my previous post, and have had no correspondance from the magistrates since
The magistrates told me to ignore any mail from the historic fines as they had taken the case back
I asked my mother to look out for any mail from the courts,

[Meoricin]

Aaggraa1 said:

Thanks for the advice
In court when I did the stat dec, I was advised that the old case numbers were replaced by a new case number.
I only became aware of the fines etc because my mother convinced me to register at her house so I could vote on Brexit...
I had no idea about these fines before the date in my previous post, and have had no correspondance from the magistrates since
The magistrates told me to ignore any mail from the historic fines as they had taken the case back
I asked my mother to look out for any mail from the courts,

You've said this more than once now - would I be correct in assuming you mean you did receive mail from the historic fines team, but ignored it?