Bailiffs change after death of Hyndburn pensioner (From Blackburn Citizen)

Bailiffs change after death of Hyndburn pensioner

8:00pm Monday 10th August 2009 in News By Emma Cruces, Reporter

TRAGEDY: Andy Miller

BAILIFFS will no longer be allowed to judge a householder’s ‘vulnerability’ following a report into the death of pensioner Andy Miller.

The 78-year-old father-of-five collapsed and died of a heart attack in January after a bailiff took him to a cash point to pay an overdue speeding fine, which had spiralled from £60 to £350.

His family, who had written to the court service asking them to deal directly with them while he recovered from a previous heart attack, stroke and ten-day coma, were furious their warnings had gone un-heeded.

They said officials from Her Majesty’s Court Service were warned the former Blackburn town centre, Barrow and Knuzden pub landlord was in poor health, had suffered memory loss, and was often confused.

A report by Justice Minister and Blackburn MP Jack Straw tells how the bailiff had received a forwarded email from the family, before making his way to Mr Miller’s India Street home, in Accrington, to “investigate a claim of vulnerability”.

In the report, Mr Straw said in future the court’s contractors, Marston Group bailiffs, should use its customer service unit to investigate these claims, separating the task from the enforcement of warrants.

Leaving both tasks to one bailiff is described as creating “a conflict of interests”.

The report says that while there is “no evidence of wrongdoing” with the bailiff in this case, that the system itself is flawed.

The report also says the courts should place time limits on vulnerability checks after discovering the Marston group had the Millers’ email for 16 days before forwarding it to the bailiff.

Mr Miller’s nephew, Steve Flanigan, 61, said he was not happy with the report.

He said: “The state of affairs which led to this mess is just completely morally wrong.

"It’s all very general and mentions nothing specific about Andy’s death.”

Mr Miller’s family say that before his illness he had been suffering money problems – which they believe may have been why he had not paid the speeding fine – and had been working as a cleaner in a bid to make ends meet.

In the report, Mr Straw concludes: “My officials will be taking steps to ensure that measures are taken to address those weaknesses identified with the contractor.

“Lessons learnt from this incident will be issued in guidance to both contractors and HMCS contract managers.”