Don't Take My Car: Bailiffs Undercover Panorama


Don't Take My Car: Bailiffs Undercover

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Tonight on Panorama, we go under cover to expose the bailiffs

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bringing misery to motorists. Do you want the bad news or the bad news? I

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couldn't believe the parking had gone up that much. Investigate how

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?65 fines can Spiral out of control. ?777. What starts out as a very

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small issue quickly ramps up into something that can destroy people's

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lives. Then you have removal costs an then you have storage costs. It's

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over ?1,000. And can end with your car being take ton pay off the debt.

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-- taken to pay off the debt. He's going to seize my BMW over a bus

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lane ticket? As new rules come into force, we ask - will it really stop

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bailiffs who act like this? I'm taking the microwave and the fish

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tanks. I will take the paint off your walls as well. I'll leave wow

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nothing. -- you with nothing.

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Parking is big business, Town Halls in England raking in nearly ?1

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billion a year, a third of it from parking fines. Meet Britain's

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parking bailiffs, they're hired by councils to make sure that motorists

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who notch up parking tickets don't get away Scot free. The firms they

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work for are worth big money and the bailiffs can turn a tidy penny too.

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This job, if you do it right, the week leading up to Christmas I took

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two grand. Bailiffs say it's a difficult job, they've got to be

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ready for abuse and worse. (BLEEP), (BLEEP). They say they can be

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trusted to do it fair and square, keeping to the rules that govern how

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much they can charge for collecting debts. We've been handed a hefty

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file of documents, a detailed break down of bailiff fees, which raises

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concerns about the fees being charged by some of Britain's leading

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bailiff companies. It pie lights several -- highlights several firms.

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The file details the company's debt enforcement in ten councils across

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London and the South-East. We wanted to see for ourselves what was going

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on. We sent in an undercover journalist. He got a job as a

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trainee with JBW, an award-winning firm in Darlington. I'm here from

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the bailiff's office... This is the boss. He's become something of a

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celebrity. Here he is on daytime telly. He's also a cheerleader for

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the industry. Our strap line is a trusted approach, we say if you

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employ our services, we will do the right thing. The bailiff showing off

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JBW's trusted approach is this man. I'm a certificated bailiff from the

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courts. John, a JBW contractor, is supposed to stick to national

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guidelines. He's going to teach our undercover the tricks of the trade.

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Over a month, they make almost 200 visits.

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How to clamp a car. And how to make debtors pay up.

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Meet Keith, he's found out the hard way some bailiffs operate. Keith has

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three outstanding parking tickets worth ?55 each. He mistakenly

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thought the council had torn them up, following an appeal last autumn.

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In February this year, John and our undercover paid Keith a visit.

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Bailiffs start early, so they can catch people at home. By 7am, he has

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clamped Keith's mini cab. JBW bailiffs are given a hand-held

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device which records every visit and tells them how much to charge

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debtors like Keith. Keith works late shifts. He's barely

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had time to put his trousers on before the bailiff comes in.

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I was in shock, I really was. I couldn't believe the parking tickets

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had gone up that much. I was expecting maybe twice, something

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like 180, ?200 per ticket. Keith is being treated for skin

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cancer and he says he's had lengthy spells off work to recover from a

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series of eye operations. This is 7am, I didn't know what they

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were allowed to do. All I knew was if they took the car away, I'd be

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unemployed. How did Keith's bill go up from three ?55 tickets to more

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than ?1800? JBW says this was the third time a bailiff had visited

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Keith. On each of the three visits JBW has tripled most of the fees it

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charges. This is called multiple charging. It's allowed, but is it

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fair? Where multiple fees have been charged for a council tax debt, the

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local Government ombudsman said that placed a wholly unreasonable burden

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on people already in debt. John the bailiff is paid on

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commission, a 40% cut, from some of the fees he collects for JBW. If a

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debtor doesn't pay up, he doesn't get paid.

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Keith has made it clear that as a result of ill health, he's

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struggling pay. Under Government guidelines, which do allow John some

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discretion, he should tell the council that Keith is a potentially

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vulnerable debtor. But he doesn't. If Keith is to get the clamp off his

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cab, he needs some money, so he asks his neighbour, Steve, to help.

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His neighbour pays off one of the tickets for ?610.

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Keith still owes ?1200. John calles head office to ask about a monthly

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payment plan. But John says, at this stage, they don't seem willing to

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help. The bailiff time lay greez to un--

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final lay greez to unlamb -- finally agrees to unclamp the mini cab.

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They're not actually allowed to remove a person's tools of trade. In

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this case the mini cab. John knows this all along.

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Three weeks later, JBW put Keith on a monthly repayment plan. Citizens

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advice questioned 350 parking ticket debtors about the bailiff industry.

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One in three said bailiffs had threatened force, a quarter were

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told that items would be taken that didn't belong to the debtor. We

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found that people were scared and intimidated routinely by bailiffs,

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that what starts out as a very small issue, quiply ramps -- quickly ramps

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up into something that can destroy people's lives. John, meanwhile is

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looking for a motorist who owes more tan ?1,000 for two parking fines.

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The woman tell it's John that the debtor is out of the country.

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She doesn't speak English, so a neighbour offers to translate.

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Our undercover points out a letter from the DVLA addressed to the

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debtor, but it's not there when John goes to look at it.

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By law, only the debtor can be made to pay, but ignoring the rules, John

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demands more than ?500 and threatens to remove goods.

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When she insists she has no money, John gets angry.

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Then John appears to think she's just being rude to him.

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John the bailiff finishing off with some choice words about the family

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he's just intimidated. Back in the van, the bailiff tells

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the undercover that his behaviour should serve as a lesson in how to

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do the job. Part of the reason I done all, that you need to see how

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we enforce as well. John's hand-held device was supposed to record the

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whole visit, but in the this time. I made sure that weren't recording.

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People are very often very, very frightened by bailiffs. That is

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partly to do with their physical presence, but much more often, it's

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to do with deliberately aggressive and threatening behaviour.

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But it's not just the behaviour of individual bailiffs causing concern,

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it's what some bailiffs charge for. There are laws governing the fees,

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but they can be difficult for the debtor to understand.

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The campaign group has uncovered evidence of how big some of the

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bills can be. They're exploiting a little-known law to compel local

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authorities to hand over sample invoices, detailing the fees charged

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by bailiff companies, working for the councils.

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This is the upshot of their work, bills from the bailiff companies to

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motorists, who haven't paid their parking fines. Some of these bills

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can run up to hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds. Here's one for

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?2,244. 20. The bailiff companies say their charges are lawful and

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reasonable. Some motorists use one word to describe bailiff charges:

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Disproportionate. Andrew has helped the group uncover evidence of

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charges they believe to be wrong. We were really scrutinising the

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contracts and we went onto the bailiff contracts and about how they

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was just carrying out their business and doing their work and we found

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things that were wrong. Double charges or incorrect charges. Some

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of the concerns were about fees charged on the bailiff's first

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visit. This should be an opportunity for debtors to settle the fine. Meet

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Steve from Essex, he owns a fleet of black cabs. When one of his drivers

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failed to settle a ticket, a man from the bailiff firm turned up at

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his door demanding payment. The visit was recorded on Steve's CCTV.

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I answered the door and when he said to me, "?667" I could have fallen

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over. The original fine was for ?60. Steve wanted to know how the bill

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could be so high. He said he was not there to explain, he was just there

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to collect the money. Steve asked for a take-down of the fees

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Equita's head office. Included in the bill was a charge for sending

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the van to take away his goods. So where was the van? What were you

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expecting to see, Steve? You would expect to see a truck

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capable of taking away a two tonne taxi or goods up to the value of

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their charges. Here he comes. This is our bailiff. I'm not Jeremy

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Clarkson, but that is know to truck, that is a car. He would be lucky to

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get a telly in there. So why did you pay the bill? I paid it under

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duress. The threat of them coming in and removing goods, in the end, I

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paid it just to put an end to the matter. Equita says all its fees and

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charges are applied according to the law, agreed client guidelines and

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industry best practice. But it is when bailiffs take your card that

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things can go from bad to worse. Motorists can be charged for

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removing and selling their cars to pay off the debt, and these charges

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can rapidly escalate, costing the motorists thousands of pounds. John

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the bailiff and our undercover are still working the streets of

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London. There was a reason the man behind

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the door is not being friendly to a bailiff. The ticket has already been

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paid, but Lawrence houses in a dispute with his counsel over other

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tickets. Lawrence is a full-time volunteer at

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a Swan Sanctuary. Come on, fella. Bottle top, usual kind of thing we

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get over here. Every day, he crosses London in his veterinary ambulance.

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I can get calls from anyone, the police, Railtrack, Thames Water.

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Fortunately, with my van being an ambulance, I can use the bus lanes

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to get where I have got to go in the rush-hour. Ambulances on official

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business are allowed to use the capital's is lanes by law, and

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Lawrence' vehicle is taxed and registered as an ambulance. Yet one

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London borough repeatedly finds him. Barking and Dagenham Council issued

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the first ticket in 2009, and more followed. I went back to the council

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and said, you have been sending me this bustling tickets and you are

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wasting money doing this. Just knock some heads together and sort the

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problem out. What happened? Nothing. The bus lane tickets just kept

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coming. At least 30 tickets were issued over the next few years. And

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while some were cancelled or waived, three were passed to JBW. By June

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last year, the company was demanding more than ?2000, so it sent one of

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its bailiffs to his house. And he said he was going to seize my BMW,

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over a us lanes to get for my veterinary ambulance. -- a bus lane

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ticket. So we had a dispute over it. Get your phone off my property. The

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incident was filmed on Lawrence' mobile phone. With the bailiff

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refusing to move, Lawrence hoped the police would intervene to resolve

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the dispute. The police, who I thought were there to help me,

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actually came into my home and put me in handcuffs. Official police

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guidance makes it clear that officers should not help bailiffs

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remove people's buds, but Lawrence says the two officers refused to

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release him until he agreed to let the bailiff move his tow truck onto

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the driveway and take his car. I am a law-abiding citizen, and you have

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allowed this to happen. The bailiff to Lawrence' BMW, worth around

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?15,000, to pay the three disputed tickets. The car was sold for just

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over ?12,000. JBW took a hefty ?3490. Lawrence felt that more than

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1600 of the fees from charges have not been properly explained. The

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debt is just impossible to work out. JBW says it did provide a breakdown

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of the fees, and Lawrence did not ask for them to be broken down

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further. It says it's bailiff complied with all relevant

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obligations in his dealings with Mr Howes. The Metropolitan police said

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the incident was being investigated as part of a civil complaint made by

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the family, and it was unable to comment. Mr Howes is not the only

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person to face steep bills after failing to pay a ticket. The invoice

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is obtained by the NoToMob shine a light on the fees motorists are

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charged by the bailiff companies once their cars have been removed.

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Take this invoice from JBW. The storage in encouraging, ?420 plus

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VAT. For getting keys cut, ?180 plus VAT. The whole bill tops out at

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almost ?2000. The bailiff companies say their charges are fair and

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reasonable. The motorists say, oh, no, they are not. The law sets out

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that the charges for removing and selling cars should be reasonable,

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but it has left the court is to define what this means in practice.

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If it is the council 's that are hiring the bailiffs to collect

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unpaid parking fines, shouldn't they ensure that motorists are treated

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fairly? The NoToMob, which has been investigating bailiff fees, says the

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councils are not doing enough to check up on the bailiffs. They get

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away with it because nobody is monitoring what they do. At one

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council acted on the campaign group's findings, and suspended JBW.

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They were acting outside the rules and regulations. They were charging

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for things they did not actually do, and they were charging for

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things they were not entitled to do as well. The council said it made

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JBW return ?13,000 to motorists who had been overcharged. The company

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was reinstated after a month. So as we speak, JBW is still collecting

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debts for Hackney Council? Yes, that is correct. But be in no doubt. If

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we hear instances of this happening again, we will suspend the contract

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and investigate and if needs be, we will terminate the contract. JBW

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disputes Hackney's version of events. But what happens when

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councils failed to hold a lift companies to account? Hoody

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motorists turn to if they believe bailiffs are in the wrong -- who do

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they turn to? I think most people in the position of being up against

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bailiffs are in a vulnerable position. For starters, they don't

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necessarily understand the law, and they are in a terrible position to

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push back cos it is hard for ordinary people to sue the bailiffs

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or take other action. Mr Howes had already lost one car, but the

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tickets for driving his ambulance in bus lanes kept coming. In February,

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he started getting visits from another company. It a lift was

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demanding more than ?1500 for three tickets. He said he was there to

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seize the ambulance. He said he was going to take the daily may

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ambulance, but also my wife's car. I then said to him, you are not going

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to seize my car. It is in my name and has nothing to do with the

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ambulance or my husband. It is solely my car. We all need our

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cars. Beverley uses hers for work. She helps the tins of domestic file

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in. The next thing I know, he has put my ambulance in the tow truck.

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Then I looked out, and he is pushing my wife's car into the street.

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Lawrence' ambulance is essential to his voluntary work. Is a tool of

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trade, it should not have been taken. Nor is the bailiff allowed by

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law to take Everly's car. She is not the debtor -- Everly's. But a

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Kominsky says he was legally entitled to remove her car, as he

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believed it belonged to her husband. Just went away. Haven't heard

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anything since, so we don't know where our vehicles are. The Howes

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reported the bailiff to the police and they appeal to the bailiff

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company, but in vain. When I meet with the Howes, they still don't

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know the whereabouts of Everly's car, or this one ambulance, so they

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call the bailiff, Mr Kominsky. I would like to know what you have

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done with our cars. Who sold it? The towing company sold

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my van? Mr Kominsky, in regards to my Vauxhall, what do I need to do to

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get my car back, and where is it? The Howes have now had two cars and

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an ambulance seized from them come with a total value of more than

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?30,000 over disputed tickets. Barking and Dagenham council says

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both bailiff companies acted properly, and that it was right to

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enforce payment against Mr Howes, as he had not always provided a defence

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or adequate grounds for exemption. For our undercover, after 12 days as

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a trainee bailiff, it was the end of the road. He was sacked. JBW said he

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was unsuitable for the role. Yesterday, the government brought in

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new rules limiting the powers of bailiffs. There is also a new,

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simplified fee structure. But the first visit will be more costly.

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Debtors will now pay, with the fine, as much as ?500. There are some

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small improvements, but the gaping hole in this is a lack of

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regulation. So we want to see a much longer, independent, tough

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regulator. So will there be an independent regulator? My

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responsibility is to say to local authorities that if you are

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employing bailiffs, you should employ them in an ethical and

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reasonable way. You should look in terms of fines to be reasonable

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towards the motorist. That is wonderful, but unless you have

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regulator, all of this is pie in the sky. That is something the Justice

:27:35.:27:40.

Secretary will address. The Ministry of Justice has told us there are

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currently no plans for a regulator. Following our investigation, John

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was suspended by JBW. The company says that as a self-employed

:27:57.:28:00.

contractor, he was acting outside its policies and procedures. It says

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it has apologised to the people whose cases were raised by Panorama.

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The bailiff told us he takes is no response ability for the isolated

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comments made -- he takes responsibility. We have been told

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Mrs M2' car will be returned. But as to the veterinary ambulance,

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Lawrence has given up all hope of getting it back. And on Thursday,

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don't cut my benefits. I could be uprooted all over again

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to come back to London. It doesn't make sense. A Panorama special on

:28:36.:28:39.

the front line of Britain's benefit reforms.

:28:40.:28:45.

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