Hi All,
I came across this forum the other day whilst searching online about the JBW Group and found it incredibly comforting that I am not the only one that is having problems with these thieves.
First, some background information:
Me and my girlfriend live in a building full of flats. It's got gated underground parking for residents who live in the building. On Friday the 16th December (last friday), my girlfriend wanted to take our car to do some food shopping, but to her horror found our car had been clamped. She ran back upstairs to me and explained the situation at which point I picked up the phone and called the bailiffs phone number which was displayed on a piece of paper that was stuck to our drivers window. Please see here for image:
http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/01.JPG
The first thing I found strange about this is that they require you to call an 07 (mobile) number, but I did and got through to a guy who I could barely understand. He explained to me that the car had been clamped due to us not paying a congestion charge penalty, which to be honest, I may have forgotten to do. He also explained that he wanted £580 to release the car. We told him we would call him back while we discussed the situation with each other and at this point I found the Legal Beagles forum which seems to have a lot of information about people who are / have been in similar situations to us. Anyway, the story continues.
We called him back and asked a few simple questions. First, how did you manage to clamp our car in a residential gated underground car park. His reply: "Ahh ehhm.. we spotted your car using our ANPR camera", which if you have been reading this you know is a lie. There is no way his ANPR camera could have spotted my car in an underground car park. Even if you park in the most accessible area of our underground car park you wouldn't be able to spot it using ANPR. His reply: "Ahhh ehmm... you need to pay now or i'll come and remove your car". Unfortunately, I lost my temper at this point and told him to go shove it and if he comes near my car I will sit inside it as long as I have to. He then threatened to call the police if I did such a thing.
Here is a picture of the clamp: http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/02.JPG
Couple of questions if I may:
1) Are bailiffs really allowed to come into a gated residential underground car park and clamp my car?
2) If I would have sat in the car, do you think he would have called the police? This is a question which has been haunting me ever since this incident happened.
He did threaten me with additional costs if he had to call the tow-truck etc, but a part of me thought he was bluffing. Anyway, I wasn't quite ready to find out a few days before Christmas, so we paid him the £580, splitting the payment between my girfriends debit card and mine. What a Friday night ey? Merry Christmas!
We tried to take pictures of as many things as we could, and one of the things that really caught my attention was his ID (which I asked for before we paid him). Take a look at it here: EDITED for Confidentiality
I used to work as a web designer and when looking at this piece of ID it seems to be that it's home made? If you pay attention to the edges and sides of the ID you will see that it's not straight and just looks really shabby. But then I saw the stamp from Watford County Court and thought to myself, this then has to be real? Would bailiffs be stupid enough to fake something like this? Because surely, if they were caught, they would be in serious trouble?
Finally, after we had paid, he took the clamp off, but left the sticker on our window. I asked him politely to take it off as he put it there in the first place to which he responded: "NO". We then tried to peel it off see here: http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/04.JPG
but ended up having to get a bucket of hot water from our flat to get it off:http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/05.JPG
Can I get these plonkers for damage to my car somehow? Surely they put the sticker on there, they should take it off?
Our current state of mind:
We are completely willing to pay the original TFL charges (£178 or something I believe), but find it absolutely outrageous that we have been stepped on in our own homes like this by bailiffs. So the ultimate question remains: Do we stand any chance of getting our bailiff charges back if we take them to court?
I hope to hear from you ladies and gents.
Kindest Regards,
Fredrik Christensen
I came across this forum the other day whilst searching online about the JBW Group and found it incredibly comforting that I am not the only one that is having problems with these thieves.
First, some background information:
Me and my girlfriend live in a building full of flats. It's got gated underground parking for residents who live in the building. On Friday the 16th December (last friday), my girlfriend wanted to take our car to do some food shopping, but to her horror found our car had been clamped. She ran back upstairs to me and explained the situation at which point I picked up the phone and called the bailiffs phone number which was displayed on a piece of paper that was stuck to our drivers window. Please see here for image:
http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/01.JPG
The first thing I found strange about this is that they require you to call an 07 (mobile) number, but I did and got through to a guy who I could barely understand. He explained to me that the car had been clamped due to us not paying a congestion charge penalty, which to be honest, I may have forgotten to do. He also explained that he wanted £580 to release the car. We told him we would call him back while we discussed the situation with each other and at this point I found the Legal Beagles forum which seems to have a lot of information about people who are / have been in similar situations to us. Anyway, the story continues.
We called him back and asked a few simple questions. First, how did you manage to clamp our car in a residential gated underground car park. His reply: "Ahh ehhm.. we spotted your car using our ANPR camera", which if you have been reading this you know is a lie. There is no way his ANPR camera could have spotted my car in an underground car park. Even if you park in the most accessible area of our underground car park you wouldn't be able to spot it using ANPR. His reply: "Ahhh ehmm... you need to pay now or i'll come and remove your car". Unfortunately, I lost my temper at this point and told him to go shove it and if he comes near my car I will sit inside it as long as I have to. He then threatened to call the police if I did such a thing.
Here is a picture of the clamp: http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/02.JPG
Couple of questions if I may:
1) Are bailiffs really allowed to come into a gated residential underground car park and clamp my car?
2) If I would have sat in the car, do you think he would have called the police? This is a question which has been haunting me ever since this incident happened.
He did threaten me with additional costs if he had to call the tow-truck etc, but a part of me thought he was bluffing. Anyway, I wasn't quite ready to find out a few days before Christmas, so we paid him the £580, splitting the payment between my girfriends debit card and mine. What a Friday night ey? Merry Christmas!
We tried to take pictures of as many things as we could, and one of the things that really caught my attention was his ID (which I asked for before we paid him). Take a look at it here: EDITED for Confidentiality
I used to work as a web designer and when looking at this piece of ID it seems to be that it's home made? If you pay attention to the edges and sides of the ID you will see that it's not straight and just looks really shabby. But then I saw the stamp from Watford County Court and thought to myself, this then has to be real? Would bailiffs be stupid enough to fake something like this? Because surely, if they were caught, they would be in serious trouble?
Finally, after we had paid, he took the clamp off, but left the sticker on our window. I asked him politely to take it off as he put it there in the first place to which he responded: "NO". We then tried to peel it off see here: http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/04.JPG
but ended up having to get a bucket of hot water from our flat to get it off:http://69.175.39.234/~marsligh/images/05.JPG
Can I get these plonkers for damage to my car somehow? Surely they put the sticker on there, they should take it off?
Our current state of mind:
We are completely willing to pay the original TFL charges (£178 or something I believe), but find it absolutely outrageous that we have been stepped on in our own homes like this by bailiffs. So the ultimate question remains: Do we stand any chance of getting our bailiff charges back if we take them to court?
I hope to hear from you ladies and gents.
Kindest Regards,
Fredrik Christensen
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