Tuesday evening, Adamsdown, Cardiff – local Somali family faced with aggressive bailiff seeking to repossess £100s worth of goods over a £7 TFL rail fare.
Locals turned out in support of the family and a civil rights lawyer successfully stopped police allowing the bailiff to enter the property.
Law firm say they are seeing more repossession as a result of debt affecting people already in poverty, and fear the crisis could spiral with rising cost of living.
Image courtesy of local resident
By SC Cook and Mark Redfern
Successful opposition to a bailiff in Adamstown, Cardiff, on Tuesday evening has highlighted the shadowy world of debt collection and repossession affecting some of the poorest people in society.
The bailiff had tried to gain entry into the home of a local Somali family, but was eventually sent packing after the presence of a civil rights lawyer and a small crowd of locals gathered outside the property.
The lawyer involved, Hillary Brown, says that the bailiff should never have been at the house in the first place but she is seeing an increase in aggressive home repossessions over petty debts hitting working class people.
“He made no attempt to speak to anyone, he had a bully boy attitude.”
The enforcement officer, from the firm CDER Group, had turned up at the property near Clifton St, Cardiff at around 4.00pm on Tuesday 4th January saying he intended to take hundreds of pounds worth of items from the house in order to repay a rail fare debt, originally worth under £10.
The lawyer acting for the family, Hillary Brown, told voice.wales that the bailiff acted with a “bully boy attitude” towards the mother and used the illegal tactic of putting his foot in the door of the property to gain entry. He then tried to claim he secured ‘legal entry’ so could go about taking valuable items from inside the house.
“We presented evidence that the enforcement officer was being unfair and he does have discretion,” said Ms Brown. “I shared everything and called the company immediately but he was being unreasonable. He made no attempt to speak to anyone, he had a bully boy attitude.”
The mother of the family who lives in the house had initially opened the door after the man knocked but had no idea what debt was apparently owed.
The woman and her children successfully stopped the bailiff from entering the property and a crowd quickly gathered outside in support. More people arrived after a social media call by Black Lives Matter Cardiff and Vale went out.
The enforcement officer eventually called the police to facilitate entry to the property. Shortly after this, however, lawyer Brown arrived at the property and presented a number of documents to the police relating to the case, which showed that the bailiff should not be at the property as the debt was being contested by her law firm, Virgo Consultancy Ltd.
Eventually, and with many people now gathered in solidarity and filming the incident on their phones, the police conceded that Ms Brown was right and the assembled crowd cheered as the bailiff was forced to leave.
The presence of the bailiff stemmed from a small rail fare with Transport for London involving one of the children of the family.
The young man had bought a train ticket from Reading to London Paddington in 2021 using a young person’s railcard discount. When he was unable to get through the barriers with his ticket at Paddington, he called over a guard who inspected the ticket and the Railcard app on his phone. The man was then told he didn’t have a valid railcard and he would need to pay the difference of around £7.
Ms Brown, who is representing the man, says he offered to pay the difference then and there but was told by the guard that TFL would instead write to him. He was a student in London at the time and moved away from the property. He says he never received any letter from TFL or CDER group.
After the debt came up on a DBS check with a potential employer, the family discovered that it had been passed to a collection agency and contacted Virgo Consultancy, the legal firm of Hillary Brown. Lawyers then contacted TFL and submitted legal documents to stop the collection agency proceeding, but the court did not action them in time over the Christmas break.
Ms Brown says that even though the bailiff had no case and she herself contacted CDER Group, the man maintained that he was allowed to gain entry to the home and was being extremely aggressive to the family.
She says that a young woman who also lived in the property came home but was unable to enter her home for hours, as the family were worried that if they opened the door any further the bailiff would go inside.
Ms Brown also questioned the role of South Wales Police. When the police sergeant turned up, Brown felt he was ready to back up the bailiff, and had it not been for the legal documentation presented by her, plus the assembled crowd, the police were primed to facilitate the bailiff’s entry to the home.
“The tactics they use can be aggressive and intimidating .”
One local who was at the scene told voice.wales that she got there just before 7pm and there were around 10 people watching and filming what was happening.
“From the information shared about the situation, it just seemed very unfair and excessive for the bailiff to be chasing up a fine that was being disputed and where a court appeal had already been made.”
“The tactics they use can be aggressive and intimidating so I thought it was important to go and be a visible presence. I think this was also part of the reason the police didn’t side with the bailiff – they could see that there were lots of people there watching and filming what was going on.”
Lawyer Hillary Brown told voice.wales that these cases are not uncommon and that her firm often helps people facing repossession over petty debts. She says she has seen a rise in cases over the past 5 years and fears this will only increase as the cost of living crisis soars and more people find it difficult to pay bills.
“How can it be right when people have a debt and they are already struggling, that you instruct a bailiff and that immediately puts £100s on your debt, it can’t be right.”
She stressed, however, that in this case the debt was contested which made it all the more shocking that a bailiff had turned up at the door.
The episode provides a glimpse into the shadowy world of debt collection and the industry behind it, which is often hidden from public view and acts on behalf of major firms or public organisations such as TFL.
There are likely many of these types of incidents happening to the poorest people in society going under the radar.
*This article was amended. An earlier version named CEDR Group as the company involved. This has now been corrected to CDER Group.
