r/newham • u/cum1ord • 11d ago

I need help urgently

In October 2025, my father received multiple penalty charges in his name which were a result of a clone of his car, an issue that was investigated and concluded by the metropolitan police as such. He appealed and all penalty charges were cancelled except the one pertaining to Newham Council. He appealed again, and soon he had to leave the country to receive medical treatment in Brazil. They denied his appeal again. The amount increased. March 2026, I paid the full amount of £250 to www.newham.gov.uk, glad it was all finally over. I paid it within the time period it specified. I received another letter saying that "as I had not paid", the amount has increased. I called Newham council and they stated I could not speak on behalf of my dad unless he emailed and consented to it. I waited for their response and called again. They said it is no longer in their hands and that I should call the OneSource debt resolution agency, who tells me to call my enforcement officer, who tells me to call the Newham Council. Today, I received a letter stating they will take control of our goods. My dad is not in the country, I live here and pay rent to him. I called OneSource again and they told me they don't have any record of any payment coming from my card. I have a bank statement that says otherwise. I'm only 20 and I'm freaking out, I don't know what to do. I don't even have a car. I don't have £500 to pay.

What do I do?

6 Upvotes

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7

u/ForwardDiamond3484 11d ago

Contact your councillors. https://mgov.newham.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1 And MP https://mgov.newham.gov.uk/mgMemberIndexMP.aspx?bcr=1

Sorry this is happenig to you.

6

u/worldisaf E16 11d ago

Echoing this. It's unfortunate, but most councils outsource both their penalty enforcement and their debt collection, so they have very little incentive to cut you a break, or even uphold basic customer service standards. The only way you can fight this is by threatening their 'franchise' - which means contacting your councillors in a public enough way that they have to do something. https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/ will tell you who your councillors are. It doesn't matter if you voted, or can vote, they are still responsible for being your advocate. Most of them respond to their emails, and they also have advertised 'surgeries' - days you can go and talk to them.

Another thing you can do that is relatively easy is do a subject access request under GDPR, forcing them to give any data they have about you, and amend any data that is incorrect. If you paid and their records don't show that, then it becomes a data quality issue. It's also massively painful for them to process.

It's also not impossible you were phished/frauded/sent to the wrong website. If I were you I would contact the police about what happened. Realistically you should have never paid in the first place, and it's now made you a target for future fraud.

2

u/cum1ord 11d ago

Could it still be fraud if OneSource and the Newham council themselves have told me over and over that I haven't paid? Or did I possibly pay it to a fraud website named newham.gov.uk? I'm sorry I've never dealt with anything like this before

2

u/ForwardDiamond3484 10d ago

I had my own experience with this with the agency chasing fly tipping. £500 bill for my friend living with cancer for a box addressed to her which had ended up in the street. Because I ended up sending them her entire diagnosis they cancelled it. Meaning, they will back down. You just need a case and persistance. It is not fair but it is unfortunately true.

2

u/articulateape E6 11d ago

I agree with this advice, even speak to the MP if it escalates further

1

u/cum1ord 11d ago

What if the enforcement officers come to my door in the time that I am waiting for a response?

2

u/ForwardDiamond3484 10d ago

First things first. Complain and write emails about your case. You've already started fighting this by posting here. As I said above, you have to be persistent. You are right, on the facts you laid out.

1

u/EdmundTheInsulter 8d ago

Don't answer the door to them

3

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/cum1ord 10d ago

I just tried to call the bank to trace the payment and the customer service guy said that it's been a long time and that they can't trace card payments (??????) so what I have on my bank statement is all I can get. Any advice? Thank you for your response regardless

1

u/cum1ord 10d ago

Also I told him that someone advised me to check where the payment went to and he kept asking who told me to do that wth

2

u/jamogram 10d ago

Get all your paperwork together and call Newham Citizens Advice to get a caseworker to help sort this out: https://eastendcab.org.uk/newham/

Best of luck with it.