THURROCK Council has admitted its failure to manage information properly led to a borough family being unjustly pursued by debt collectors and receiving threatening communications.

A member of the borough-based family, whose anonymity we are respecting, booked football pitches for a team he is involved with and for which he says payment was made.

However, out of the blue he received demands for payments from a London-based debt collection company, London Warrant Execution (LWE) – who, it appears, were given incorrect information by a council officer. The council has confirmed it uses the company to collect debts on its behalf.

LWE threatened that if the bill was not paid, a warrant could be implemented whereby its agents would enter the family property and take goods to the value of the alleged debt.

The shocked family protested, initially to no avail, that there was no debt and contacted Thurrock Nub News.

That resulted in questions from us to the council who admitted a mistake.

A statement from the authority says: "The incorrect information was not supplied by London Warrant Execution, it was given by a Thurrock Council Officer.

"We have written to the person concerned to correct this oversight and apologised for any confusion caused.

"Thurrock Council has also agreed to cancel the debt concerned. The council does use London Warrant Execution to help collect money owed to it. There have never been any issues of them providing misleading information to council debtors."

The council issued the statement despite holding a copy of the correspondence from LWE direct to the family, which threatens the use of door-step collection agents or county court action - which would in all likelihood involve an application for a warrant and appointment of bailiffs. Advice on the gov.uk website clearly states: "The person or business you owe money to may use bailiffs to collect the money.

"They'll have to apply to the court for a 'warrant', which will give the bailiff the right to visit your home or property. You'll be given 7 days to pay before they visit."

The statement sent to the family shows the threat of door step collection and county court action.

A spokesperson the family said: "Our family have found this extremely disturbing. To receive a warrant from a debt collection agency at any time can be distressing, to get one when there is no justification behind it is even worse.

"It appears to us that LWE were, to an extent, misrepresenting their powers, and all based on a mistake by Thurrock Council.

"A more vulnerable person, whether a genuine debtor or not, may just have paid up because they felt threatened or intimidated.

"Or their actions could have been even worse.

"The council needs to look at the consequences of its mistakes. It does seem bizarre to be chasing debts when they cannot evidence a debt actually exists as was the case here."