(page revised 5 May 2023)
HOME page Main Mersey Gateway Penalties page
WARNING. IN FEBRUARY 2023 A HIGH COURT JUDGE REVERSED THE DECISIONS MADE BY ADJUDICATORS OVER THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS. HE RULED THAT THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PENALTIES WAS LEGAL.
THIS HUMPTY DUMPTY DECISION MEANS THAT SOME OF OUR PREVIOUS ADVICE NO LONGER APPLIES. WE HAVE TRIED TO REFLECT THE NEW SITUATION BELOW AND IN OUR OTHER PAGES DEALING WITH THE PENALTIES
MERSEY GATEWAY PENALTIES - STAGE 6 - AFTER "BAILIFFS"
This page describes what you might do if either your TE forms have been refused by the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) and / or if you have been forced to pay money to the people who say that they work for Marston.
Submitted TE7 And TE9 Forms But They Have Been refused
Claiming Money Back That You Have Paid To Marston
Submitted TE7 and TE9 forms but they have been refused
When you submit TE9 'witness statement' forms to the Traffic Enforcement Centre this will normally stop recovery action. But if you do this past the deadline (which is quite common because many people are unaware that a TE3 recovery order has been issued till they are being chased by bailiffs) then you also have to submit a TE7 'out of time application'.
Until around April 2019 all of the late applications seem to have been accepted. But from May 2019, Merseyflow started asking the TEC to turn down many of the out of time applications, apparently at random. This meant that recovery action was not stopped.
If the late application is refused then you should get a letter telling you. It will also say that "The response from the local authority with regards to your out of time application should already have been served to you." By referring to the 'local authority' the TEC is maintaining the fiction that it was Halton Borough Council that applied for the Recovery Order.
You have 14 days to challenge the refusal, asfter that recovery action will recommence.
The driver has the following choices-
Pay.
Do not pay and try and fend off the bailiffs as per our stage five advice.
Consult a solicitor and get them to demand that Merseyflow cease their action. As far as we know almost no one has done this even though Merseyflow seemed to give in if there is a solicitor involved.
Ask for a review of the TEC decision:-
Review of a rejection by Traffic Enforcement Centre
Querying the decision with the TEC will produce no result. They will say that they will not and can not tell you why the application was refused - as they do not record the reason why they refused the application.
So you will have to formally apply for a review of the TEC decision by submitting a N244 application notice-
Before you start to complete the form, email Halton Council and ask that they give you a copy of the Council's response to your out of time application - hdl@halton.gov.uk that was mentioned in the refusal letter from the TEC, but which you may not have received. Tell them that you need this in order to complete the N244 application.
The N244 application (including a large print version) and the guidance notes are on this link.
Unfortunately there is a prohibitive cost and no indication of whether the costs will be returned if you win.
The cost is £100 if you opt to have your case decided "Without hearing by a district judge" or £255 "With hearing at your local county court".
If you opt for the less expensive option then the decision will not be an independent one and you can expect to lose. Though it seems that even if you do opt for the cheaper option, you may be told that there will be a hearing and you have to pay another £150.
You may be able to get help with the fee if you are on low income or on benefits- 'Get help paying court and tribunal fees'.
You will have to consider what you will say. Even after five years, there have been almost no N244 applications.
From the few cases that we know of, the court will not be interested in whether the penalty really was payable by you.
It is likely that the only issue will be why your application was late-
Was a good enough reason given for the a late application?
Was it at all possible that you could have submitted the application earlier?
Is there some particular reason why you might not have got earlier notices?
Have you submitted more than one application and they accepted some but refused others even though you gave the same reasons for being late?
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Claiming money back that you have paid to Marston
You may have paid money to Marston because either you were unaware how to challenge the actions of Merseyflow and Marston, or were unable to challenge them for some reason, or you were too scared by their letters and the people that they sent to your home, or you submitted TE forms but they were refused by the Traffic Enforcement Centre acting for Merseyflow.
IF THE MONEY THAT YOU PAID TO MARSTON WAS WHOLLY OR PARTLY FOR PCNs THAT YOU HAVE NOT SUBMITTED TE FORMS FOR, THEN SUBMIT THEM NOW-
You will of course be submitting the forms late, so you will need to submit TE7 out of time application as well as the TE9 witness statement.
Be aware that Merseyflow are bound to oppose the forms, so you will have to give a very good reason for the late application. The most common reason will be that you were not aware of the recovery action till you had Marston chasing you, so you never received the TE3 Recovery Order or TE9 witness statement forms.
You will also have to say that you have only just become aware that it was possible to do anything about the money that you were intimidated to pay.
It is not strictly relevant but you can also mention any special circumstances. Such as you may dispute that there was any penalty payable and that you would have challenged it if you had received the PCN. Or it may be that you were vulnerable but either you were unaware that this should stop any recovery action by Marston, or that you told Merseyflow and / or Marston that you were vulnerable but they ignored it.
Our general guide to filling in the TE9 and TE7 forms is here 'Dealing With Recovery Orders - FILLING IN THE TE9'.
(The bit about the TE7 forms is immediately below that at 'If you are returning the TE9 form late, then you will need to do TE7s'.
IF your TE forms are accepted (it may be that they are accepted for some PCNs but not others), then you can claim a refund of all the monies that you have paid to Marston.
You should claim this by an email to Merseyflow- info@merseyflow.co.uk.
(Note that you may automatically get a refund.)
(Also note that Merseyflow will probably reissue the PCNs, but you can either pay them at £ 22 or challenge them- STAGE ONE - Making A Representation Online To Merseyflow.)
IF THE MONEY THAT YOU PAID TO MARSTON WAS FOR PCNs THAT YOU SUBMITTED TE FORMS FOR, BUT THEY WERE REFUSED
We used to make some suggestions as to how you could do this. They are now unlikely to work. If you qualify for legal aid then you could try consulting a solicitor.
If anyone thinks that there may be another way then please contact us through the Facebook Group, or email us.
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