Monday, September 12, 2011

Fighting back

It isn't - as we know too well - only Council Tax where bailiffs are being used by local authorities. Here we see a £60 parking fine inflated to £174.64 – before the bailiffs have even set foot in the door.

What makes this letter special though is the wording – carefully crafted to imply that, if the bill is not paid immediately, the bailiffs will break in and remove goods. This is not exactly spelt out explicitly, but the phrasing gives that very strong impression. "We do not require you to be at home during the removal (of the goods) ", the letter says, "but we would prefer that you were".

Anyone with any savvy knows that the bailiffs have no powers to force entry. If you do not invite them in and are not incautious enough to leave external doors and windows open (although the scrotes here would be quicker off the mark than the bailiffs … assuming they are different people), then they cannot come in.

Fortunately, the bailiffs have picked on a tough nut on this occasions, although I gather the instructions given did not lie in the realms of the complete biological impossibility. But no money has changed hands.

The point here, as my informant pointed out, is that someone less versed in the ways of the slime might very well be taken in by this deception – they might even be considerably alarmed by it, roll over and pay the money.

And that is all at the behest of your friendly neighbourhood local council – these the people who, perversely, enforce trading standards and prosecute people for deception – except, of course, bailiffs. But if the authorities will not enforce the law, and employ thieves to do their bidding, our response must be expressed in biological terms. The more impossible the better.

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