Debt collection letter for unpaid rail ticket - but this is the first time we've heard of it.

[unpaidrailticket]

This morning a letter arrived from a debt collection agency saying my husband owes £720 to Her Majestys Courts & Tribunal Service. Called the number and was told this was for an failure to show a rail ticket and this is for Merseyside Magistrates Court. This is the first we've heard of this offence, he's only been on a train once in the last year and didn't fail to show a ticket. This train also wasn't in Merseyside. We've had no communication from any authority until this letter showed up today. What do we do now, as I can only think it must be mistaken identity.

Sounds like a scam!

Call the court it’s supposed to be from direct. I bet the number is different.

Then contact action fraud.

I don't think it' a scam unfortunately. It's from Marston Recovery and we've called them from verified numbers from their website rather than the letter sent and they confirmed a lot of the information. The letter only gives the amount owed and to whom. The letter's payment number is also identical the one given online which also leads to me thinking that the letter is legit (even if the money isn't owed by us).

Where was your dh at the supposed time?

We can't contact the court until Monday morning to verify completely, and we won't pay anything until we have confirmation.

Either this is a scam or someone has stolen your husband's identity to get out of paying.

I've been a victim of identity fraud and it's a PITA to sort out.

Does your husband have any evidence, such as booking numbers, train tickets, a bank statement, to prove its bollocks?

Ring the court too.

Quite often a detail turns up to be false, such as a date of birth, or a significant change to normal activities. Mine was, I never step foot in a particular part of London even though I live in the metropolitan area. We all have habits, and these are picked up on.

Best of luck.

@Easterisoffeggstooexpensive

Where was your dh at the supposed time?

We don't have a time. The only date we have is the date the case was referred to the debt agency. We don't know the date, time, location or anything about the offence itself.

Does your husband have any evidence, such as booking numbers, train tickets, a bank statement, to prove its bollocks?

Booking numbers for what? You can't prove you weren't on a train you weren't on, unless you can find out time and date and can show you were elsewhere.

I'm sure the onus will be on them to try and prove it but it'd be wise to be proactive and contact the court if you can.

I wouldn’t panic. It does sound like some sort of identity theft type of bullshit.

Give 111 a call and explain you think you’re a victim of some kind of scam/identity theft. Well your Dh should.

But strange that they have only just contacted you at your address... where are the original penalty notices / court notices / failure to reply letters etc., surely they would also have been sent in the post? How did Marstons get your address? Can they say?

post picture of letter here with your name+address taped over?

Your DH needs to contact the convicting Court (will be noted on the letter) and explain that he was unaware of proceedings....the court will advise on what you need to do. There are a few resolutions to this situation, however none are instant.

Initially the court may advise a Statutory Declaration (swearing that your DH was unaware of court proceedings) this process will allow the conviction and sentence to be quashed and the case will become 'live' again, this will allow the Prosecutor time to investigate the matter.

Another option is to ask the Court to liaise with the Prosecutor requesting that they look into the matter and provide some ID from your DH, it may be that the prosecution file can confirm that the person stopped was not your husband. If there has been an error made an application to re-open can be made to the court allowing for the case to be re-heard and hopefully withdrawn.

Lastly, I would also suggest making contact with accounts unit for the court area you are in, explaining that it is believed to be an identity issue, they may be able to assist.

Also it is worth explaining to the Bailiffs that you are disputing ID and are taking advice from the court, they might be minded to leave alone of they are aware that any monies recovered may have to be refunded.

We've got through to a more helpful person at the debt agency, and while she still has no information about the offence, she has put the case on hold and will request the information from the courts and call us back on Tuesday. We also requested to know how they got our address and she gave three addresses for us: our current address, our previous address which we sold in October 2020, and an address in Liverpool we have never heard of.

DH is on the phone to 101 now, who are patching him through to Action Fraud. I feel a bit calmer now with information, as I think it should be able to be solved. He hasn't been in Liverpool for over ten years!

Marstons are a debt collection company

I bet this happens lots. Try not to worry, sounds like you are getting some good help from 101

Does sound like Fraud

For heavens sake don’t pay anything! It’s if it’s not fraud it’s an admin error.

If this is the first you have heard of this it may well be the case that all court papers, etc went to the Merseyside address. This could have been going on for a long while.

It could be that a recent search by name incorrectly linked your husband’s details to the case, and it is a simple mistake by the tracing agency.

I have had to deal with many debt collection agencies/ enforcement officers ( landlord with HMO, and generally ex tenants will forget to update one or two companies about their new address) and in my experience Marston’s are actually one of the most reasonable.

I hope it is easily sorted, but don’t be too surprised if the matter or something similar surfaces again in the future. Once a name and address is linked with a debt it is very hard to erase the record.

Maybe check Experian and see if there is any other debt built up in his name at the Liverpool address! x

It could be a tracing error. DH's name is hardly unusual and I imagine there are thousands with his his name in the UK. Marston's seemed pretty reasonable on the phone; they immediately put the case on hold while it's looked into and while they have almost no information regarding what happened, they are going to request it. DH will also call the court on Monday to see if there is any more information on the case and hopefully we will be able to show that he was nowhere near Liverpool at the time.

I imagine this has been going on for a long time at the Merseyside address as the letter we got threatened enforcement officers to our address, which I wouldn't expect would be typical for a first contact of non-payment. I just hope that it's all resolved soon.

This happened to us. My husband has a fairly average name - imagine David Williams - there are lots out there. He started getting debt collection letters for a David Williams but like you associated to an address he had never lived at and in a town he had never lived in. He checked his credit report and that address had somehow got on to it. He then got more debt collection letters etc and they included a middle name that wasn't hs either.

Turns out there was a David John Williams born the same day as him - but he was David James Williams. It took ages an ages - he had to go through the credit agencies (all of them) and managed to get the wrong one off. The debt collection agencies were actually fairly OK to deal with - he was able to explain - but the credit agencies took ages and multiple calls, letters and emails to disassociated him from the wrong David Williams and the worn address and the other guy's debts. He popped back on a couple of time as they give each other information so one would the slow to take him off so update the others who would put him back on - took a few years to be full sorted and drove him mad - we even wrote to newspapers and TV over it... but basically get his full credit reports from every agency Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Crediva and challenge anything that doesn't look right. Be warned it is very har to prove that you haven't ever lived somewhere - we had the incorrect middle name as evidence.

I’m completely sure it’s a tracing error now. Another call to the debt collection agency this morning revealed that the court only gave the Liverpool address to them, so Marstons must have found our address themselves. They said if he could send over proof of address for before January then they should be able to rule him out. Fingers crossed that will solve it, the person he spoke to was very helpful and took him seriously and seemed to believe him, which I didn’t expect as people must come up with all sorts of reasons why they don’t have to pay🤞

@unpaidrailticket

I’m completely sure it’s a tracing error now. Another call to the debt collection agency this morning revealed that the court only gave the Liverpool address to them, so Marstons must have found our address themselves. They said if he could send over proof of address for before January then they should be able to rule him out. Fingers crossed that will solve it, the person he spoke to was very helpful and took him seriously and seemed to believe him, which I didn’t expect as people must come up with all sorts of reasons why they don’t have to pay🤞

Do keep chasing and following up with the credit reference agencies. The debt will move on to another collection recovery firm who may make the same assumptions. Until we got the notes on DHs credit report we would get demands and bailiff letters every few months.

Until we got the credit report notes updated they kept chasing every few months.

Contact the Court account unti for Merseyside, they will have done checks on the case and may have incorrectly linked to your DH....they also will have provided any details they have to the Bailiffs, so the link may not have been by the Bailiff but the Account Unit....it will ensure that all agencies involved unlink your DH.