Wirral Council taking people to court who can't pay Council Tax: £2,196 Paying for it using a Barclaycard in the name of M Burns: Priceless

Wirral Council taking people to court who can’t pay Council Tax: £2,196 Paying for it using a Barclaycard in the name of M Burns: Priceless

Wirral Council taking people to court who can’t pay Council Tax: £2,196
Paying for it using a Barclaycard in the name of M Burns: Priceless

                                                                        

As I’d better declare this interest at the start, I will state that my wife is the person in this household liable for Council Tax.

Just when the satirists must have thought that the filming ban of public meetings of Wirral Council would led to a deficit of quotable quotes from local councillors, below is a credit card statement from November 2013. Quite what the blacked out bit states or the other ten pages I’m not sure.

Now I’m not saying people shouldn’t pay Council Tax, however thanks to decisions made by Wirral Council’s Cabinet, households that hadn’t paid Council Tax before because they had got 100% Council Tax Benefit, suddenly had to pay a whopping 22% (this figure is from memory and applies (I’m massively simplifying here as there are people who don’t have to pay Council Tax too) to households of people of working age with nobody of state pension age and above). This led to an increase in people not paying, which led naturally to an increase in Magistrates’ Court cases filed by Wirral Council.

The Magistrates’ Court is of course where my father used to work before he retired and located just off Hamilton Square in Birkenhead and Tranmere ward, which by sheer coincidence is the ward where Wirral Council’s Leader of the Council/Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Phil Davies represents.

At the time this change was planned and going out to consultation I warned Wirral Council in public meetings that this would need to lead to an increase in bad debt provision and their own costs!

Council Tax is one of the few taxes you can get locked up for in this country for not paying. Thus returning us to the concept of the “debtors prison” in Victorian England.

However the question is, how many people who literally couldn’t pay Council Tax, even if Wirral Council got a court order is Wirral Council going to the trouble of launching criminal cases over that costs the taxpayer money?

Bear in mind that this is a monthly invoice. Although the statement is in the name of LM Burns, it does somewhat remind me of the character of Charles Montgomery Burns in the Simpsons or as he would say “Release The Hounds!”

This is the court fee element, Wirral Council add this, plus their own internal legal costs to the outstanding Council Tax bill, which means by the end the Council Tax bill that they couldn’t pay before is even larger! Oh and thanks to Wirral Council, those who couldn’t pay end up at the end of the process with a criminal record, making it harder for them to get certain jobs to pay off their Council Tax debt!

Council Tax court cases Barclaycard invoice Wirral Council November 2013
Council Tax court cases Barclaycard invoice Wirral Council November 2013

If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:

Wirral Council paid Nigel Lawrence QC £27,185.90 to prosecute Meyer Group Limited for X-raying its employees

Wirral Council paid Nigel Lawrence QC £27,185.90 to prosecute Meyer Group Limited for X-raying its employees

Wirral Council paid Nigel Lawrence QC £27,185.90 to prosecute Meyer Group Limited for X-raying its employees

                                                                     

This invoice is for a successful criminal prosecution by Wirral Council of Meyer Group Limited in the Liverpool Crown Court. Meyer Group Limited pled guilty.

This case started in 2012 and ended in 2013. Known court dates at Liverpool Crown Court for this case are below:

30th October 2012 (preliminary hearing)
24th January 2013 (plea and case management)
26th April 2013 (for sentence)
4th July 2013 (for sentence) before His Honour Judge Morrow QC

Representing Wirral Council was a barrister called Nigel Lawrence QC of 7 Harrington Street Chambers, Liverpool.

This invoice is for the small sum of £27,185.90. The breakdown is:

A: Travelling expenses

Car parking (on the 24th January 2013) *note this was for the plea and case management hearing at Liverpool Crown Court* £7.00
VAT on car parking (£7 * 20%) £1.40

Total £8.40

B: Legal work

Work from 24th June 2012 to 10th July 2013 (129 hours 25 minutes @ £175/hour = £22,647.916 rounded up to £22,647.92)
VAT on work done: (£22,647.92 * 20% = £4,529.584 rounded down to £4,529.58)

Total: £27,177.50

Grand Total: A (£8.40) + B (£27,177.50) = £27,185.90

There’s a court report in the Liverpool Echo about this case with the headline Workers at Mersey firm exposed to potentially unsafe levels of radiation.

When Wirral Council supplied me with the invoice for £27,185.90 as part of the 2013/14 audit, they deliberately blacked out the name of the defendant Meyer Group Limited. I supply the original invoice and partially unredacted one below.

Wirral Council V Meyer Group Limited redacted invoice £27,185.90 Nigel Lawrence QC Liverpool Crown Court
Wirral Council V Meyer Group Limited redacted invoice £27,185.90 Nigel Lawrence QC Liverpool Crown Court
Wirral Council V Meyer Group Limited partially unredacted invoice £27,185.90 Nigel Lawrence QC Liverpool Crown Court
Wirral Council V Meyer Group Limited partially unredacted invoice £27,185.90 Nigel Lawrence QC Liverpool Crown Court

If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks: