Remove an illegal wheel-clamp using bolt cutters – the law.
taken from Peace Officers UK TG Group: https://t.me/peaceofficers
Bailiffs and police officers try to tell you that you commit an offence under Section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971.This is NOT true.
The law actually says – “A person who without LAWFUL EXCUSE – destroys or damages any property belonging to another”.
That means if the clamping of your vehicle is unlawful then you have lawful excuse to cut off the wheel clamp. Its as simple as that!
If a constable continues with the arrest, then in all probability, it is only to cause annoyance. He knows there has never been a conviction for cutting off an illegal wheel clamp.
You can now make a complaint under section 1 of the Magistrates Courts Act 1980 against the constable for committing an offence under section 26 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Here is the Procedure. The arrest now becomes toxic for the arresting constable and the police force.The clamping of your vehicle is ILLEGAL if it is:
1. Not yours, leased, or on finance and the final payment is not made. Paragraph 10 of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 says “an enforcement agent may take control of goods only if they are goods of the debtor.”
2. Used in your employment work or education, or other exemption under Regulation 4 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013. Regulations don’t require you to have “business insurance” on your vehicle. That is a myth originating from bailiff companies. The law only requires “third party” security. Section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.
3. Used for carrying a disabled person having a disabled badge. Regulation 4(1)(d) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013.
4. Being used by someone when it was clamped. The law says (Regulation 10) “Circumstances in which the enforcement agent may not take control of goods” – Regulation 10(2) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 says “Where an item which belongs to the debtor is in use by any person at the time at which the enforcement agent seeks to take control of it”.
5. Clamped before 6am or after 9pm. Regulation 13 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 20136.
You have not received the statutory Notice of Enforcement, Regulations 6 & 7 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and Paragraph 7(1) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
7. There is no principle debt, for example, the debt has been paid, or quashed, or the bailiff is using a wheel clamp as a leverage to obtain a fee. The law says “where the debtor pays the amount outstanding in full” – “No further step may be taken under the enforcement power concerned” – Paragraph 58(3) of Schedule 12 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. and “Fees and disbursements not recoverable where enforcement process ceases” – Regulation 17.1 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 . “Enforcement agents must not seek to enforce the recovery of fees where an enforcement power has ceased to be exercisable” – Guideline 31 of the Taking Control of Goods: National Standards 2014.
8. You did not know about the original debt until you received a bailiff. Law is depending on the type of debt involved.
Magistrates’ court fine: Section 14 of the Magistrates Courts Act 1980
Council tax: Regulation 23 or
Regulation 33 of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
Civil Traffic debt: Part 75.7 of the Civil Procedure Rules
High Court Enforcement Debts: Run this checklist and apply to set aside the writ.
9. The bailiff does not have a certificate. He commits a further offence under Section 63(6) of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. Check here to see if he has a certificate.
10. The debt is more than 12 months old, the date on the Notice of Enforcement is most probably more than 12 months ago, then enforcement of the debt ceases to be lawfully valid. Regulation 9(1) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013. More.
Seb 338, [10/11/2024 20:41]
11. If any of the above points 1-10 is true, then clamping on private land commits an offence under Section 54 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. See also Paragraph 211 of the explanatory notes, and this Parliamentary confirmation document. It can be reported in writing to the police. You can also make a civil claim against the creditor under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977. Private land includes private roads not adopted by the council and shopping centres.
If the bailiff has breached any of these regulations then:
The bailiff cannot charge or recover fees from you when he has not complied with any prescribed enforcement procedure including items 1 – 7 above. Regulation 3 of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014.
1. Recording the call on your phone, ask the bailiff on his mobile, to return to the vehicle and remove the clamp. Say why it is illegal. Give him an hour.
2. Recording the call on your phone, report it to police on 101 and keep the “its a civil matter” rebuttal stored on your phone.
3. If it is out of hours, the council has an emergency telephone line on its website. If you need your vehicle urgently, call the council who can contact the bailiff to return to the vehicle and remove the clamp.
If you are still clamped an hour later:
1. and you are suffering loss as a result then you can remove the clamp using reasonable force. Exclusion from criminal liability is provided under Section 5(2)(b)(i) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971. Here is how to remove an illegal wheel clamp.
2. Make a formal complaint to the court responsible for issuing the bailiffs certificate for failure to comply with enforcement regulations.
3. Deploy the following with the council (or creditor) and your MP using the instructions contained herein
Make a formal complaint to the council or creditor and ask them to pay you damagesIf you have no supporting evidence the vehicle is illegally clamped, make a sworn affidavit.
Sworn statement proving the clamp is illegally used
You can also report the offence to police quoting these regulations. Nothing protects enforcement agents recovering debts from liability under these regulations, in fact evidence to the contrary is true appeared when a bailiffs trade association tried getting Parliament to introduce a clause excluding its member enforcement agents from criminal liability for illegal clamping.
Bailiff companies and sometimes, police are under a belief bailiffs are in a class above the law. There is no legislation that provides for bailiffs to be exempt from liability if they are caught using a wheel clamp on a vehicle on private land or a public highways when he does not have “lawful authority”.
You can remove the number plates and install a stoplok to the vehicle for the time being.
If you have already been charged under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 for cutting off an illegal wheel clamp then you can sue the police for damages if a police officer says the bailiff had lawful authority but a court later makes a finding of fact he doesn’t.
You can make an offer to the arresting police force to discontinue the prosecution or pay restitutional damages for vexatious arrest if no conviction results. Make an offer to the police to discontinue with the arrest or withdraw the prosecution You can also claim damages against the local authority that hired the bailiff company.
Print and hand the following template to a magistrate on the day of your trial and AFTER the prosecution has made its case to the court (and NOT before).This results in your prosecution being aborted, and you attract a right to sue the police for damages for bringing the prosecution. NEVER show this document to a prosecutor, otherwise you may lose your right to claim damages because the prosecution may be deliberately aborted before your trial date.
If you demonstrate to the magistrate how the bailiff and the arresting police officer acted illegally, the magistrate – a district judge, a servant of the state – has an obligation to order an investigation and bring them to court to answer the allegation.
Cause the prosecution to be aborted by exposing the police officer and bailiff to the magistrate
When your prosecution has been aborted or you are acquitted, you claim damages from the arresting police force for the sum of £10,000 and make a claim in the small claims court. You don’t need a solicitor for this.
Ask for damages for malicious prosecution, false arrest and unlawful imprisonment.
Clamping without permission from the court or regulation providing for it is an act of trespass, the detention of the vehicle until a money transfer is made is wrongful. Paragraph 14 of Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest [2000]
4 All ER 169You can also make a civil claim against the police. If the vehicle is on a public road, a person removing an illegal clamp is not guilty of criminal damage, R. v Ali Bromley Magistrates Court [2011] unreported April 18 2011, and a person who pushes a clamper away from the clamp while it is being removed is not guilty of assault.
Note: This applies to bailiffs clamping for unpaid parking tickets, council tax and High Court writs and fines without a clamping order, but NOT DVLA clamping unpaid car tax or COUNCIL owned car parks regulated under Section 79 of the Traffic Management Act 2004.You can also anonymously report the fraud to Action Fraud online which are investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. Police follow a list of criteria for deciding whether to investigate a fraud. You must learn the criteria and set out your complaint so it fits neatly into it. Otherwise police will summarily fob your complaint.
For low value & end of life vehicles, consider this method of wheel clamp removal
Note that Section 92 of the County Courts Act 1984 does NOT apply to any High Court action or any execution of a warrant for a statutory debt, this is ONLY related to county court process.
Most of the time, police forces do not accept bailiffs reporting a debtors vehicle is “stolen”. The police call centre operative tells the bailiff is told the registered keeper must report the vehicle stolen and will note an incident number on a CAD report. You can ask the police to see this CAD report to check the bailiff is telling the truth.
You may also sue the police officer personally and recover your losses if he tries to stop you removing the wheel-clamp because the police officer is not in execution of duty to interfere in a civil matter
.A police officer must arrest a bailiff is he becomes aware he is committing an arrestable offence under Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 such as charging a fee for using a wheel clamp as this is an arrestable offence under Sections 1-5 of the Fraud Act 2006 and the officer’s failure to do so can result in disciplinary action as this is in itself an offence under Section 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 and Section 4 of the Criminal Law Act 1967
The officer is now aware of the offence because this notice was handed to him in person and proof of knowledge & delivery is effected by taking a photograph of the officer holding it. You do not ner, e.g. Shows you a sales receipt for it. Otherwise you can dispose of the wheel clamp and charge the cost of disposal to the creditor.
If the bailiff admits using the wheel clamp, then you can claim damages under Section 4 & Section 5 of the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.For example, it cost you £200 for the bolt cutters it then the council or creditor whom the bailiff is working for now owes you £200 costs. If the bailiff does not claim the wheelclamp, then an “abandoned goods disposal fee” is added and its all charged to the creditor whom the bailiff acted under.
If the bailiff does not pay you then these costs are recoverable from the council using a Form N1 in the small claims court and you can add further costs for the unlawful deprivation of the use of the vehicle and the cost of taking the clamp to a police station along with this document.
Just deposit the wheel-clamp with the document attached at the front reception at the police station and leave. You don’t need to speak to anybody there.Sample claim particulars to recover costs of removal and disposal of an unlawfully used wheel clamp from a vehicle.
Start a claim in the county court for unlawful deprivation of your vehicle If the bailiff returns and calls police then start recording everything using your mobile.
Hand a copy of this document to each of the attending police officers and be sure to keep the cameras rolling because you may need to prove delivery of this document which can be shown to a court and proved the officers are aware of the law.
The police officers won’t hang around because it is a civil dispute and they don’t want to be guilty of assisting a bailiff under Section 4 of the Criminal Law Act 1967. The police officers do know the law but if they often try and give the impression they don’t and may also be guilty of Nelsonian knowledge. This defence is defeated by proof of delivery of this document to the police officers.If a police officer makes threats against you or arrests you, then capture it on video and print the Criminal Damage Act and hand it to the duty solicitor at the police station then follow this procedure (do not show to the police officers).
If a police officer arrests or makes a threat of an arrest and you were exposed to an unlawful loss, (for example allowing a bailiff access to goods while you are under arrest) you can follow this procedure and recover damages from the police force and make an application for an investigation by the professional standards department against a police officer for not being properly trained in civil enforcement regulation, or offer the police force to pay you a sum for not making an investigation or disciplining the officers.
It is a civil dispute between you and the bailiff and police should not get involved. You can also claim damages from the police force for wrongful arrest and their lack of understanding of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 and make a civil claim against the police force for professional incompetence. It is likely that you will never be charged with an offence. The police sometimes call it Restorative Justice (which in this case, is nonsense, no offence was committed) because the police know that you could grass on the arresting police officer to the Magistrate for assisting the bailiff defraud you with his fees or similar under Sections 4 and Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 or to commit a tort.
The Magistrate has a power to order a corruption investigation by the Serious Fraud Office against the attending police officers of their police force responsible for training them because the officers may be guilty of an offence under Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006Worse, the police officers may not know the law of tort and would be deemed professionally incompetent requiring leave from duty for retraining on criminal law and general observational skills in detecting a crime being committed in their presence.
This goes on their permanent career records so the officers know it is not worth the risk getting involved over a wheel clamp. If you are charged with an offence then use this document to abort the prosecution.
The police officer himself could be guilty of assisting the offender by arresting you which in itself is an arrestable offence of “Assisting an Offender” under Section 4 or Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 or under Section 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 or deliberately concealing the offence which is also an offence under Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act. You can make a complaint to the IPCC and ask for an investigation.
If you are arrested or cleared of an offence then you have a right to claim damages from the police force for bringing a making an arrest knowing the suspect has no prospect of a successful conviction.
You can also claim if a police officer pretends your vehicle does not belong to you while there is an invalid levy over it. They ought to check the PNC who the registered keeper is but this is not necessarily the owner, which making it impossible for any police officer to be certain whose custody the vehicle belongs. Acting on an incorrect guess results in liability to the lawful owner.
If the police fail to check the levy before assuming it is genuine then arrests you, there may be grounds for a claim against police force for the replacement cost of the vehicle, or a new vehicle if a like for like vehicle is not readily available.
There must be very good reasons for arresting a debtor on the grounds of preventing a breach of the peace, only a serious and imminent threat justifies arrest, Foulkes v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police [1998] 3 All ER 705A police officer himself may personally be liable under Section 4 of the Criminal law Act 1967 if he unlawfully arrests a person for lawfully removing a wheel clamp from his own vehicle.
You can claim excessive levy if the clamped vehicle is worth significantly more than the original debt and this can amount to unjust enrichment and if you are charged exaggerated costs then it could be an offence of fraud under sections 1 to 5 of the Fraud Act 2006.
Take photographs of the clamp still attached to your vehicle. It is common for bailiffs to accidentally damage the paintwork at the top of the wheel arch when fitting the clamp to the wheel. Also take photos from inside the wheel because a hidden danger the brake lines are vulnerable to being snagged by the chains as the bailiff passed them behind the wheel.
The council and bailiffs are liable accidental damage even if it was an accident and a statutory liability is prescribed under Regulation 34 of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and Paragraph 7 of the 2014 Taking Control of Goods National Standards says the creditor is responsible for the bailiffs acting on their behalf.
There may be a criminal liability under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 because it does not differentiate whether or not the damage was caused by an accident. Also Section 1(2) (b) says a liability exists if the damage is “being reckless as to whether the life of another would be thereby endangered;” This is especially true with damage to the vehicles brakes.
The damage to your vehicle can be reported to the police if they are called to attend, but this report must be a WRITTEN report otherwise the police may deliberately ignore it.
If a bailiff damages your vehicle while using a wheel clamp on it then the authority is liable for damages. It will be your word against the bailiffs as to whether the bailiff caused the damage. You prove it by making a sworn statement of truth (examples), then get the car repaired and charge it to the authority and add any rental car costs to the account. If the authority refunded to pay then make a claim in the county court and name the authority and the bailiff company as joint defendants.
Regulation 4(1)(f) of the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013. If you car is used to carry a disabled person and the bailiffs have taken or clamped it, then make a formal complaint and request its return. You can ask for costs later. Just get the car back. The disabled badge does not have to be displayed in the vehicle. The disabled person does not need to be a relative, it can be a friend or a local person
Make a sworn statement proving the car is used to carry a disabled person. It cannot be rebuked.