Single mum on Universal Credit 'threatened' by bailiff over £400 parking dispute

dailystar.co.uk:

£400 from her without notice because of a parking dispute.Jemma Martin, 31, went to Skegness for an August bank holiday trip with her then-partner and two children, at the time a four-year-old and 18-month old.Martin, from Nottingham, parked slightly over a white line after finding there was no room to open the car doors properly at the North Parade car park and soon found herself with a parking ticket.But it was the surprise visit from the bailiff that horrified the single mum-of-two, who received a knock on her door eight months later.Martin said: "I have had the bailiff at my door asking for £394.

But I wasn't financially in a position to pay that."Having told the bailiff she couldn't pay, the debt collector allegedly threatened to take her car, but couldn't because it was financed, after which Martin says he made a second threat.The mum-of-two, who told the man he could not enter the home, continued: "He threatened that he could come into my home and take my things."I had a bloke in front of me telling he could break into my home and take things.

I was very intimidated, he was quite a big bloke."She added that the "big bloke" bailiff had left a note saying Martin had paid voluntarily, but the mum-of-two alleges she paid because she felt "threatened".Martin, who works two hours a day as a midday supervisor at a local school, labelled the incident as "disgraceful" and continued: "I am five foot two inches, what could I do? £400 is a massive chunk of my monthly allowance, it's about half."I have got my mum to rely on, but that's to borrow, not to have.

I'll have to pay it back, so it will be a while until I'm on top of things."Martin says that East Lindsey District Council told her the bailiff officer may not have acted.