Let them do a cover-up, then seek accountability

Durham County Council continue to double down on their criminal endeavour

Martin Geddes

Dec 11, 2022

I came home from my trip to London to find the above letter in my post. It is an attempt by my local council to extort me into paying an unlawful bill, and intimidate me for holding them to account for due process. It won’t work.

If you have been following the saga, the essence is that they repeatedly claim a court has issued a Liability Order, but refuse to ever produce one, or even discuss the subject. That is because none exists, and they are running a fraudulent administrative court. I have complained, and in my last letter to the CEO’s administrative team asked to know whether the CEO has seen my letter containing allegations of criminal conduct, and whether their complaints process allows for criminal matters to be considered.

I got this response:

Good afternoon Mr Geddes
Thank you for your email and your clarifying comments.
Durham County Council (DCC) strongly refute your allegation of blackmail, fraud, perjury, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to the collection of council tax. However, we would advise that matters you suggest which relate to criminal complaints should be reported to the police for their consideration, investigation and response.
I consider the information previously supplied in relation to the councils corporate complaint process and my contact details are sufficient for you to determine your next actions and if you wish to continue this matter with my team.
If you choose to progress to the second stage in the Complaints policy please confirm this by 15 December 2022 and I will allocate your case to a member of my team to review, otherwise your case file will be closed and no further engagement will occur.
Please be aware that any investigation undertaken by my team would not focus on your suggested ‘criminal conspiracy against the public’ but rather it would review if DCC had followed the appropriate policies and procedures prescribed within legislation in relation to the collection of council tax.
I note that you have requested that ‘any further contact on this matter be via post, with a proper wet ink signature of the person responsible on any notice’ and therefore I can confirm that a copy of this response has also been posted to you in accordance with your wishes.
Yours sincerely
Mrs L Baines
Team Coach Customer Feedback Team
Durham County Council

Shocker! Criminals deny doing crimes…

Note how I had specifically requested that I am not contacted via email, only in writing, so doing it via this medium is a form of aggression and domination. The full name of this officer was not given to me as requested. I was not told the names of the people who previously wrote to me anonymously demanding payment without due process. My questions about whether the CEO has been informed, and what the process is for a criminal matter, were ignored as “clarifying comments”. Then they just proceeded to threaten me with debt collectors, ignoring all lawful due process.

If there is no Liability Order, then all of this is highly illegal. They are representing the authority of a court where there is none (perjury), making false statement in order to gain financial benefit (fraud), demanding money with menaces (blackmail), and conspiring to prevent due process (perverting the course of justice). You can go to prison for these things, which is why they are so determined to make me fold and submit. It would also require them to pay back everyone they took money from unlawfully, which would probably bankrupt them (and deservedly so after Covid).

There is no point going through a civil complaints process run by crooks; it is not a civil matter any more. I will be going to the police to file a criminal complaint, because I now have enough evidence of a conspiracy to defraud the public. If nothing else, it gives me a crime reference number to give to any debt collectors who try to unlawfully clamp my car, as it will make it clear I am an expensive person to mess with — and not worth the effort. Yes, I will come after you personally too… if you try to steal my property! Plus I have a lot of frens who are very, very tired of this kind of thing and highly motivated to see me succeed in getting to justice.

Here is my letter to their collections department:

I have belatedly received your notice dated 28th November 2022 stating that you will enter into debt collection. It appears to be back-dated, as it took (at least) a week to arrive. This notice is unlawful, as you have failed to present any evidence of a Liability Order when challenged, merely repeating your assertion of one existing.
You are not permitted to recover a debt which is in dispute, and most certainly in the case where proper court procedure has not been followed. This case remains in dispute as no valid Liability Order has been produced. Indeed, you have refused to even acknowledge my request for lawful due process. That is because you presumably do not have a lawful court and/or debt recovery process, otherwise you would not be so evasive.
Furthermore, it constitutes blackmail, since I have attempted to complain about your unlawful behaviour to your Chief Executive. His staff have conspired to deny me responses to my legitimate requests as a member of the public. You have instead threatened me with the unlawful seizure of my assets. This indicates a criminal intent to defraud the public, using intimidation and menaces to get around the law.
I remind you that I do not give you permission to pass my personal data to third parties, including debt recovery agencies. This is a breach of the law.
I withdraw any implied right of access to my property to Durham County Council and its agents. Any unlawful attendance constitutes trespass.
I hereby notify you of my schedule of fees for unlawful debt enforcement:
Attempts to visit my property or disturb me in any way: £500
Deprivation of use of my vehicle: £250/day
By sending any agent to my property unlawfully, you agree to my fees as an implied contract. Invoices are due for payment within 14 days.
Finally, I repeat that I will pay the invoice as soon as a valid Liability Order from a lawfully constituted court is shown to me. I am more than willing to pay; it just has to be lawful. To collude in unlawful behaviour is wrong; the ends do not justify the means.
Where is the Liability Order you refer to? Show it to me!

If I had just tried to contest the up-front legality of their summonses (from a fake court) then I would have failed, because I would have become enmeshed in their legalisms. Instead it has been brought down to a simple binary choice: either a valid Liability Order exists (in which case I would pay, so why withhold it?) or it doesn’t (and they are in deep sh*t as a result). You know the answer.

The questions I will be passing on to the police to consider are:

Why are they refusing to acknowledge my request for a Liability Order, let alone provide one?
Why is every effort to reach the CEO and raise this as a criminal matter being blocked by his staff?
Why is the council sending out legal notices without any name or signature, and refusing to provide details when asked?
Why has established law and procedure for civil debt recovery been abandoned?
Why are reasonable questions about due process for a criminal matter ignored?
Why are they trying to intimidate me with debt collection for simply asked to see the Liability Order that they claim exists?

It is a lot of work to prepare this into a simple format that clarifies to the police the legitimate civil procedure process, from the personal criminal part, from the general criminal problem. But the equivalent of breaking into a home while claiming you have a warrant, when you don’t, is absolutely clear. Durham County Council are trying to blackmail me, and if all I do is expose the higher levels of criminality and collusion, then I still win. They have gone far enough in the cover-up to damn themselves, and I have the evidence trail of prima facie criminality.

Who wins? Not government gangsters. 😎