davegtt

Ok, I got back from my career break last week, when I finally decided to face reality and open my mail (bills... lol) I found out that whilst I was away I recieved a courts summons for parking an untaxed vehicle on the road. Now obviously I didnt attend court cause I knew jack about it. I obviously looked ignorant to the courts and I have a £570 fine to pay, I never paid this fine cause again, I didnt know about it. Ive been placed on some sort of register which effects my credit rating now and I rang today to explain the situation. Not much I can do about it really by the sounds of it. Now £570 isnt a lot in the thick of it but Ive spent pretty much every penny I have on my holibobs and come home with nothing, I dont get paid til the end of September now so Im fairly skint and stumped up £70 now and agreed over the phone Id pay £70 a month to keep them happy and avoid any baliff issues which they can impose aparently.

Any idea if theres some sort of appeal I can make because I was out of the country? It mentioned I can appeal within 14 days of the judgement but thats obviously passed by now.

Thanks

Zammo McGuire

Now if you hadn,t have paid all those Ladyboys, you'd have had enough to pay the fine!

Sorry to have been of no help, but welcome back Dave hope you got lots of pics to show us?

Zammo (aka Tam the Banned... err Bam )

davegtt

LOL thanks Tam, plenty of pics. but no boobies on show All my pics are on Facebook but Im trying slowly to add them to Photobucket as we speak

Coffin Dodger

So did you actually have an untaxed vehicle parked on the Queen's highway?

Assuming you were guilty paying the fine should clear the CCJ of your credit file.

Iwan

I just had a letter out of the blue saying I was found at fault for a road accident at a court session on 15/08/2008.

Best part is, I have 14 days from that date to challenge the courts decision, which have already passed.

Nice, especially since my insurance company are supposed to have a solicitor dealing with all this on my behalf. They knew nothing about it.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

CCJ will only be removed if the fine is payed within a month (I think its a month) otherwise its there for years

davegtt

correct, 5 years. Or I can pay it within this next month, pay an extra £15 and have it taken off but Im skint, wasnt expecting this otherwise I would have saved some pennies for it.

I did have a vehicle but Ive been charged with, and I quote "keeping an unlicensed mechanically propelled motor vehicle on the road"

Now it never had an engine in it so tell me how its a mechanically propelled motor vehicle I kept it on the street waiting for the new buyer to tow it away. It would never have been towed off my driveway.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I'm sure I have read recently, that if you wasnt aware of the court proceedings, you can apeal, as you didn't have the chance to defend yourself, this may be worth looking into.

davegtt

Thats what Im hoping for Cookie but Ive not seen anything on any paperwork or websites so hoping someone might have been in the same boat. Im worried that Ive already started making payments due tot he threat of further action might go against my defence. I am in a way guilty of the offence but with my excuse I would hope they might be a little more leanient

Turbohot

I would think so^ too.

Give a call to CAB with your inquiry, if you can't find any info otherwise.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

How To Remove A County Court Judgement Legally

PaulC72

Firstly welcome back, secondly if you left a car {shell or otherwise} untaxed on the public highway then the fine is the fine, I doubt you are arguing about that point, as far as the CCJ, fine increase etc goes cab or legal assist of some sort is the only way to clear it up.
Also have you though of borrowing the money on an overdraft or something to pay the full amount off keeping you clear of the CCJ and then fighting for it back after {but with a clear name?}

GC8WRX

So a court fine counts as a ccj, i thought they were only issued when you break credit terms and fail to pay.

I was a bit stupid when younger and got loads of small court fines, which i paid off over about 3 years (back in 2004) does this mean i have ccj's registered against me?

My equifax credit report doesnt mention them at all!

Richiehash

Have the jugement set aside-see here Setting Aside Judgment then when it goes back to court explain that it was removed from the drive to aid collection and with any luck the case will be dropped-same happened to me a few years back
Cheers Richie

Stainy

Therein lies your 'get out of jail free card'

If the above statement is correct and the vehicle had a new owner, it isn't / wasn't your problem and you may be able to get this overturned. I hope you (hint) send the documentation off to DVLA with a date on, showing the change of owner.

ritchie21

OK, some free legal advice for you!!

You need to go to court and make a statutory declaration before the justices that you were unaware of the proceedings because you were out of the country and would like the conviction set aside. If you take proof of your travels with you then this should be accepted and both the conviction and penalty will be void.

It doesn't stop them from resurrecting the case though and you then have the usual options available to you (trial, pleading guilty etc). If you accept the conviction in absence then my advice is to write a letter to the Crown Court linked to the magistrates court responsible for the case and ask for leave to appeal the sentence out of time, explaining that you were out of the country, had you known about the case would've pleaded guilty and think, in the circumstances, that the penalty is excessive. Again enclose proof of your travels. The resident Judge should grant you leave to appeal out of time - I've dealt with cases where leave has been granted months and years out of time.

BTW Iwan, you have a standard 28 days to appeal sentence, not 14, but can follow the above procedure (assuming it's a criminal court not a civil one) and you will get somewhere.

OP, PM me if you need more info - I'm a criminal barrister.

jods

Aren't they all ?

ritchie21

I couldn't possibly say!!

But so far they've always let me out whenever I've done a prison visit!!!

davegtt

Thanks for the advice. I did a Statutory Declaration earlier this year regarding another court case I was involved in (dont ask. Lost count how many times Ive been in court this year)

Let me get a few things sorted and I'll give you a PM. Thanks for the advice.

Leslie

Can't understand how you can be fined if you were not in court to defend yourself. There should certainly be some means to allow for someone being away when the summons arrives. If you had not appeared on purpose then they could fine you appropriately but only after they knew that you had personally received the summons. Sounds like that goes against basic British justice and I think you should be able to appeal on those grounds.

If you had sold it then it was surely the responsibility of the buyer in any case and not only that, since it had no engine then it cant be defined as a self propelled vehicle.

Les

wagrain

Discovered last year that I had a CCJ on my credit file!

A vehicle I'd owned, and sold had not been sorned or re taxed by the new owner. I had sent off the V5 to notify DVLA about the change of ownership.
About 2 weeks after selling the vehicle I moved house. I'd set up my mail to be redirected to my new address through the post office.
I had NOTHING through the post, no tax reminder (if they thought I was still the owner I'd have got one) nothing about court dates or outcome, NOTHING.

According to what I found out, the CCJ was done through Chesterfield county court, which is over 100miles from where I live, so I've no idea why it went through that court.

I've not paid the CCJ amount, I've never had any mail about it, its only as I got a free credit report thatI've found out it was even there.

I don't intend to pay it, no one has been chasing me in the 3 years since it was issued, I'd forgotten about it until reading this thread.

Don't need anyones credit/loan/mortgage or anything so it doesn't bother me too much being there.

Waggy

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

no, a court fine doesnt count as a ccj. If you owe someone/organisation money and you dont pay it, then they can take you court to get the payment. If the courts favour them then that is classed as a ccj

wagrain

ccj = County Court Judgement

Only issued through County Courts, not High courts or Magistrate Courts.

It can be from all sorts of things where you owe someone money and they take you to court.

Waggy

ritchie21

Hey Les,

It's quit common to be fined in your absence. All a court requires is proof of service of court documents which is usually done by 1st class post. All you need as a prosecutor is a certificate of service which is usually a statement from the person who has sent the summons.

So many people can't be ar$ed to come to court they have to deal with people in absence but that is why there are the procedures I've described above to deal with errors.

Leslie

Yes I take your point Ritchie, but it always used to be that if you failed to attend a summons then you were open to arrest and being brought before the court.

Proof by first class post is just not good enough especially with the mail that gets lost these days. If a summons is sent by post than it should be by registered post and require a signature. To deal with a person in their absence is grossly unfair when there is no proof that he deliberately avoided the summons. It can only lead to an unfair conviction because he was unable to defend himself and not through his own fault.

Those who deliberately ignore the summons should expect a worse punishment.

Les

ritchie21

Warrants still are issued in serious matters and in road traffic cases where the magistrates are considering disqualification.

I'm not saying that it's good enough but simply that that is what the law is-there are very very few people who end up in the situation the OP is and when it happens there are remedies available.

People who deliberately ignore things do get a worse punishment.