About My Job: The British Debt Collector

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

I collect unpaid British court fines, mostly for the Magistrates Courts. The fines are mostly for vehicle offences, public transport fare dodging, and small crimes such as assault, shoplifting, etc. What people do not understand is that there are virtually no repercussions if they refuse to pay. The collection process is outsourced to private contractors such as myself and theoretically we have powers to seize goods and initiate arrest. However this never ...