Council tax refusenik jailed

[buzzsaw_23]

Council tax refusenik jailed

Press Association
Monday September 26, 2005

A retired social worker today became the first female pensioner to be sent to prison for refusing to pay council tax arrears.Council tax rebel Sylvia Hardy, 73, was sentenced to seven days by Exeter magistrates court today.

<snip>

As Ms Hardy, from Exeter, was led away, the chairman of Devon Pensioners' Action Forum, Albert Venison, shouted at the bench: "You are on a completely different planet you people."

<snip>

Ms Hardy, who refused an offer to speak to the court's duty solicitor, told the court: "I made a decision to withhold part of the council tax demanded by Devon county council because the increases during the past 10 years have risen by 50%.

"In one year alone the increase was 18.5% and in another 10%. My occupational pension increases by only 1.7% a year and the inflation rate by between 1% and 3%. On top of this tax, we are required to pay the highest water rate in the country, plus ever-increasing payments for gas, electricity, telephone, etc, well above the inflation rate."


http://society.guardian.co.uk/publicfinances/story/0,12671,1578592,00.html

[non sociopath skin]

1. Though a charitable, compassionate soul, why am I suspicious of this lady?

... and why does her "plight" remind me so much of those deserving causes that He Of The Night spent the election campaign cuddling?

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

2. Surely you do not think people should be banged up for £53.71

There are people with income tax arrears a thousand times the size of this amount who do not receive that sort of treatment.

This is a huge waste of public money.

[non sociopath skin]

3. ... which begs the question of why she is being banged up.

Most local authorities - including the one I served on for 12 years - will bend over backwards to accomodate people who have genuine problems with payment. So either her authority are a pack of particularly maverick blackguards OR ... she is not willing to pay even a token amount because she wishes to make a political point.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

4. Many moons ago I worked as a government income tax collector

I can not recall a single instance when my office sought a custodial sentence for non payment of liabilities. As this lady has an occupational pension I can not understand why no one has sought an attachment of earnings against her income from this source. Alternatively, if she has savings then her account could be garnisheed. Once these options have been selected there is little she could do to stop the money being collected. Regardless of whether her protest is justified I think sending the woman to jail for her non payment is disproportionate to the offence. This is a civil matter and should be resolved without resort to prison.

[non sociopath skin]

5. My point exactly, Feds ...

In my twelve years as a Councillor in a District with some of the most deprived non-City wards in the country, I never saw one person banged up for non-payment. There were always other ways of coming to an arrangement or, bottom line, clawing back the money.

Either her Local Authority is playing Silly Buggers or she is.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

9. I have also done some digging in the press

and found she has a net weekly income of £277. Assuming that she lives in a property in Band D and does not have a mortgage I think that should be more than enough to allow her to pay her council tax while still leading a reasonably comfortable life. I really can not understand why the local authority has made such a hash of recovering the debt. Once they had judgement in court they should have sought to utilise one the legal instruments available for garnishing her income or assets. Just relying on a magistrates ruling backed by a threat of a custodial sentence is simply stupid. All they have done is create a 'martyr' while at the same time failing to recover the arrear which will probably now have to be written off. Worse the cost of the prison sentence will fall on taxpayers elsewhere in the country.

[non sociopath skin]

10. Have a peek at my research below, feds.

This was a set-up politically-motivated stunt from the start.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

6. Suprise suprise!

This story made the front page of the Daily Mail! Anyone for tabloid hysteria?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=363612&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

Pensioner Sylvia Hardy has been jailed for seven days after refusing to pay £53.71 in tax to a council which has hiked her bill by 50 per cent over the past decade.

Today, the Mail can reveal that the local authorities responsible for Sylvia Hardy's massive council tax hike have spent millions in the pursuit of political correctness.

And their list of "situations vacant" give plenty of examples. Labour-controlled Exeter City Council is currently advertising for a £17,000-a-year "process redesign officer", whose job will be to devise new ways in which council staff deal with members of the public.

Devon County Council, for its part, is in need of an "outreach development worker" for up to £21,654 a year.

And so on.....

[non sociopath skin]

7. Fee Fi Fo Fum ... I smell Conservative Conspiracy....

See my views above.

She has already admitted that it's won't pay, not can't pay.

I do not believe that ANY local authority of ANY political colour would allow a Senior to go to jail if there was any feasible alternative.

It blew up during the LibDem Conference
She went to jail during the NuLab Conference
She'll be coming out during the Tory Conference. Perhaps to a standing ovation?

Hardly rocket science to see who's behind this ...

Any enterprising left-wing journalist checked out if she has a party card?

The Skin

[non sociopath skin]

8. One or two things I've found out about the lady...

Methinks the lady is – as we say hereabouts – a bit of a Workie-Ticket.

The Skin

1)HER POLITICAL VIEWS ARE UKIP ….

Exeter Express & Echo 6.11.03 I WON'T VOTE FOR A PARTY WHICH SUPPORTS HUNTING - After much consideration, I had decided some months ago that the UK Independence Party most closely reflected my views about how Britain should be governed but I was horrified to read, in one of David Challice's numerous letters, Points of view, October 28, that his party supported hunting…. Therefore, I and many of my friends who had seriously been considering voting for the UKIP in the next election will not be doing so now purely because of its support of hunting… Miss Sylvia Hardy, Barrack Road, Exeter (letter)
Source:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:xKPiLv90__EJ:www.newshound.org.uk/Hunting%2520Bill%2520November%25202003.htm+%22Sylvia+Hardy%22+Conservative&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


2) SHE’S USING THE SYSTEM…
'The only thing that is going to make any difference is direct action,' says 71-year old single Exeter pensioner Sylvia Hardy. She is paying £13 less a month on council tax than she is being asked for because she simply cannot afford it.

Her costs are going up far more quickly than her pen sion. Her water rates are up 9 per cent, the bus (she can no longer afford to keep a car) charges 5 per cent more on fares this year and her pension as a retired council worker has gone up by less than 2 per cent.

She is down to £5,000 in savings (to cover all emergencies), has taken equity release on her flat, is 'beginning to think twice before going out for friends for lunch', thinks there could easily be more hefty council tax and other rises next year and feels she must make a stand now.

She will not get the new pension credit as she is just over the limit. She has tried everything else including writing to her MP, Ben Bradshaw, the deputy leader of the House of Commons, who gave her the official government line but no help of practical use.

She is perfectly prepared to go to prison. 'I have no family. I'm not going to be upsetting anyone. The thought of getting a prison record at 71 does not worry me.' She has already been threatened with sanctions by Exeter City Council - the loss of her right to pay by instalments - and, under the likely timetable, would be up before a Magistrate's Court by late summer.

Magistrates do not wish to send pensioners like her to prison, particularly if she is seen as wanting to prove a political point. They would almost undoubtedly try a suspended sentence first. But she could push them over the edge if she did other things, like refused to pay Magistrate Court fines or if she obstructed bailiffs.
Source:
http://investorsassociation.org/forums/printthread.php?s=971a0ff7acf8129748556231fb95d87a&threadid=62913)

SHE’S AN EX –COUNCIL EMPLOYEE WITH A CHIP ON HER SHOULDER
DAVIS: Tax can evidently be trouble. Britain has a long and illustrious history of tax rebels.
Sylvia Hardy here is keeping it going. She used to work for the council and is now facing court action for not paying her
full council tax.

What's your income, annually or weekly or…

SYLVIA HARDY: My weekly income from all sources, net income is £263 and that sounds a lot but it depends on what you've got to spend money on. I have a medical condition which means that my body can't
tolerate processed foods, so my food bills tend to be higher than some people's because I've got to have organic food and other natural foods.

….

You don’t think you're making their life a little bit harder by making a big noise and…

SYLVIA HARDY
Devon Pensioners' Action Forum
Well we're having to, aren't we, because nothing was going to happen if we sat back as we did before, just write the odd letter or whatever and grumble. But now it's obviously having some impact because both central government and local government are putting their thinking caps on to try and find some fairer way
of getting the funding they need to provide the services, and I don’t think that would have happened if our
campaign hadn't started, quite frankly. A bit like the suffragettes. I'm sure women wouldn't have had the
vote today if it hadn't been for the suffragettes.

Source:
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:609E6MqPAdgJ:news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/panorama/transcripts/thetruthabouttax.txt+%22Sylvia+Hardy%22+Conservative&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


4) AND SHE GETS A LOTTERY GRANT FOR HER “WORK” …
Tax Protesters Win Lotto Cash
Lottery bosses are defending a decision to award a grant of nearly £5,000 to a militant group of elderly council tax campaigners. Devon Pensioners' Action Forum - which has run a high-profile campaign, particularly in Exeter, against council tax rises and called for more generous pensions - has been handed £4,837 by the Awards for All fund.
Pensioners with the group have appeared in court in recent years for refusing to pay all their council taxes.
And Exeter campaigner Sylvia Hardy, among the most prominent members of the group, is set to go to prison for refusing to pay all the charge.
The 73-year-old was given a 56-day suspended committal order in June by city magistrates to pay her outstanding tax of £63.71.
If she does not settle the bill, she will be sent to jail for seven days later this month.
Awards for All - a lottery grants scheme aimed at local communities which awards grants of between £500 and £5,000 - is not permitted to issue cash to political groups.
But it said it was well within its rights to give the campaign group lottery money.
According to the scheme, the grant has been awarded to allow the DPAF to set up an administrative section to help it create and send out its newsletter.
Lottery Awards for All senior awards officer Steve Barriball said: "We are able to fund organisations such as the Devon Pensioners' Action Forum.
"The group is a forum for older people in Devon and provides information to its members on a range of issues."
Albert Venison, chairman of the forum, said: "Some people may criticise us for receiving this lottery grant, but how else are we supposed to get funding?
"We have in the past applied for funding from other sources but they have turned us down by saying we are a campaigning organisation.
"Although we are a campaign group we are non-party political. We have members who are members of a number of political parties.
"We have Labour supporters, Conservative supporters and UKIP supporters.
"The purpose of our campaigning is to try to give older people a better quality of life by having better pensions and lower council taxes."
As well as carrying out a council tax non-payment campaign, the group has also organised protests and taken its calls for lower council taxes to the Prime Minister.
http://www.casinotimes.co.uk/casino-news/2005-08/lotto-060805.htm