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Thanks

I hate:

Incompetent bureaucrats.

Got stopped on the tube about a year ago for accidentally buying the wrong ticket. The thing went to the magistrates court, and I was sent a fine.

Unfortunately, between the court case and the fine being sent I moved (and gave the court my new address).

Nonetheless, the fine went to my old address.

My old housemate eventually forwarded my post and I paid the fine by an automated telephone system. End of story?

Ha ha. My housemate took so long forwarding the letter that the case had been handed over to the bailliffs, so my payment was rejected. Was I notified? No. I faxed my new address to the court AGAIN.

Eventually my old housemate called to say that a bailliff had come to his house lookign for me. Did my friend give him my new address? No. I called up the bailliff and explained. Because he'd had to call for payment and not found me, he added charges that more than doubled the fine. I was very pissed off.

I asked the bailliff to send me an invoice for the amount so I could arrange payment. A week later, no invoice, so I called up the bailliff. I was getting hightly irritated at this point. I paid using my card over the phone, and the bailliff assured me that, should there be any problem processing my payment he would contact me. He had my home phone, my mobile phone and my real current address.

About three months had passed and I hadn't heard anything, so I assumed the payment had gone (I admit I'm really bad at checking bank statements).

Yesterday I got another call from my old housemate telling me that he had just received a warrant for my arrest. There was much shouting and screaming.

I finally got hold of the bailliff again this morning, who said, yes, he remembered me and he'd not been able to process my payment because of a problem with his system. He apologised (very briefly)for not informing me and has said that he'll call the magistrates' court this afternoon to get the warrant rescinded so I can pay without having to go through the court again.

I'm not altogether confident, I must admit.

I can imagine that I'll think this is all sorted out by this time tomorrow, then in a couple of months I'll get a call from my old housemate saying he's just received an order for my execution....

The funny side (ha. ha.) is that I'm in the middle of reading a Kafka novel at the moment.....

GRRRRRRRR!!!!!

oh holy crap...your story was reaaallyyy sad!!...and I thought that these things are not happening in england...only in greece...!
Good luck Jooly!

Good luck, Jooly!

Thanks, thinking of writing a novel and passing it off as a lost Kafka.

Oh my god jooly.Good luck!!!
This the most confusing story i've ever heard.

Ooh boy, talking about Kafka indeed. Best of luck Jooly!

Hmm, now it turns out the bailiff can't do anything because my payment crossed with the warrant being handed out. So I have to go to a police station tomorrow and hand myself in. It gets better and better....

Ouch, looks like it's time to bake you the old file-in-a-cake cake...

And I thought level one was complicated...

Jooly? How are you now?

Not in jail, thanks for asking!

I went to a police station and explained my situation, told them them there was a warrant out for my arrest, and they basically said "what do you expect us to do about it?". So they gave me a number at the magistrates' court to call with an actual human being on the end of the line, who said they couldn't do anything about it, and gave me the number of the warrant office. Called them and paid the original fine (minus the bailiff's charges, so that saved me about £150), they called me just a few minutes back and told me the payment had gone through, so hopefully it's all sorted. They'll send me a receipt and then I'll believe it's all over.

Thanks for asking

Let's hope it's over now!

Small you're off the hook party

Have some cake! (but be careful, could do some damage to your teeth )

Not if you're a smiley