I was wrongly jailed over council tax (From Wirral Globe)
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I was wrongly jailed over council tax
10:33am Wednesday 8th August 2012 in Letters
WIRRAL Council claims that I was imprisoned for non-payment of council tax. I claim that it was an attempt to shut me up for my efforts to expose a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
On the July 2, I was incarcerated for 21 days for 'wilfully refusing' to pay my council tax. In my view this judgement was a serious distortion of the facts and contrary to evidence.
I have previously written to the council and offered to pay my council tax conditional upon them proving that it is lawful – which they have failed to do.
Why? Because council tax from its inception is unlawful and this being the case it is not only my right to refuse to pay it, but it is my duty not to do so.
Furthermore the council have an obligation to demonstrate its legitimacy where there is just cause to challenge its tax-collecting authority - it is called 'holding the executive to account' a basic principle of democracy.
Withholding tax is a fundamental right protected by our constitution and the rule-of-law – the outcome of which should be a proper court hearing with a jury where any claimed criminality could be fully tested by the law.
Roger Hayes by email.
Comments(18)
sandals_wearer
says...
12:36pm Thu 9 Aug 12
james04
says...
3:13pm Thu 9 Aug 12
The world was once flat and not so long ago people payed their 'poll' tax...
I'd also like to say 'fair play' to the WG for printing this letter and letting him have his say on the matter of WBC colluding with their 'business partners' at the magistrates court to make an example of such a threat to their racket and to the conformist hive mind...
sandals_wearer
says...
10:16pm Thu 9 Aug 12
King Tut
says...
10:27am Fri 10 Aug 12
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Quick pass me the tin foil.........
statictom
says...
2:57pm Fri 10 Aug 12
They write off vast fortunes every year because it is just not paid.
james04
says...
5:48pm Fri 10 Aug 12
statictom wrote:and when the 'banksters' and City of London Crooks are getting away with defrauding the system for billions after being bailed out by public money... topsy turvy world... but hey - pay your unaccountable Council Tax or we'll break down your door and put you in a cage...
Strange how this man was jailed when there is millions of pounds unpaid council tax uncollected on the Wirral.
They write off vast fortunes every year because it is just not paid.
Positive thinker
says...
9:51pm Fri 10 Aug 12
talking out of his rear passage talking of which how did you get on with PURPLE AKI ?
bickyboy
says...
11:52am Sat 11 Aug 12
Roger Hayes: misguided fool or intrepid anti-capitalist pioneer? History will decide, but I for one can't help being rather glad that he put his head up above the parapet so that we could have this debate.
.
Spiffy
says...
11:56am Sun 12 Aug 12
...
How hard can that be, really ?
Positive thinker
says...
7:12pm Mon 13 Aug 12
antisthenes
says...
11:02pm Mon 13 Aug 12
In this case the motivation was political and imprisonment was the price that he paid and we paid for in propelling his 'cause' into the arena of public debate.
The wider irony here is that the citizens of Wirral have been betrayed by a spendthrift local authority that has squandered millions of pounds via its catastrophic mismanagement of public money through its bungled procurement practices; its habit of employing costly external consultants to investigate its gross ineptitude and its golden farewell policy in rewarding the chronic failure of its cadre of squalid senior officers.
Perhaps even more ironic is the fact that the former Leader of the Council 'Green The Gaumless' backed a move to refund Council Tax to people who had never contributed in the first place.
There is a sense in which we are all being exploited through payment of a tax that is intended to provide us with essential public services but so much of which is used to prop up and perpetuate a conformocratic self serving entity political and senior officer elite who despite wantonly wasting millions have thus far not been held fully accountable for their actions.
james04
says...
12:21pm Tue 14 Aug 12
antisthenes wrote:Very eloquently put!
Every citizen has the right to withold payment of any tax that they feel is unjust or unlawful; however they must be prepared to face the legal consequences of doing so which includes imprisonment.
In this case the motivation was political and imprisonment was the price that he paid and we paid for in propelling his 'cause' into the arena of public debate.
The wider irony here is that the citizens of Wirral have been betrayed by a spendthrift local authority that has squandered millions of pounds via its catastrophic mismanagement of public money through its bungled procurement practices; its habit of employing costly external consultants to investigate its gross ineptitude and its golden farewell policy in rewarding the chronic failure of its cadre of squalid senior officers.
Perhaps even more ironic is the fact that the former Leader of the Council 'Green The Gaumless' backed a move to refund Council Tax to people who had never contributed in the first place.
There is a sense in which we are all being exploited through payment of a tax that is intended to provide us with essential public services but so much of which is used to prop up and perpetuate a conformocratic self serving entity political and senior officer elite who despite wantonly wasting millions have thus far not been held fully accountable for their actions.
spamfiend
says...
6:47pm Tue 14 Aug 12
Council tax has to be paid, you don't pay it, you go to court, if you still don't pay it and you go to prison and those of us who do pay don't.. Simples...
I have to pay mine and most of the people of Wirral pay theirs as well shut up and pay up.
Positive thinker
says...
7:36pm Tue 14 Aug 12
the only thing is Rodger the dodger and his like minded gang still won't
get it
james04
says...
8:55pm Tue 14 Aug 12
spamfiend wrote:"Council tax has to be paid" - well they still haven't managed to get Roger to pay therefore it doesn't HAVE to be paid - it's a choice. You can blindly conform and hand your hard earned over to a bunch of crooks with no real idea of where it's going, simply because everyone else does, or you can refuse on lawful, political or moral grounds.
Stop being a tool and moaning about this 'incident' which occurred wholly at your own doing.
Council tax has to be paid, you don't pay it, you go to court, if you still don't pay it and you go to prison and those of us who do pay don't.. Simples...
I have to pay mine and most of the people of Wirral pay theirs as well shut up and pay up.
Yes, you may then face a short prison sentence which admittedly I imagine the vast majority would brown their trousers at the mere thought of, however perhaps spending a few days at her majesties pleasure is viewed as 'worth it' by the stronger minded minority who are not willing to simply 'pay up' and subsequently sleepwalk though life...
bickyboy
says...
9:33am Wed 15 Aug 12
There's a lot of food for thought there if people could only act in unison, rather than leaving it to the occasional martyr to test the legitimacy of (at least on the Wirral) one of the least justifiable of taxes.
King Tut
says...
11:01am Wed 15 Aug 12
.
Now if Roger is refusing to pay as there is a perception of misuse of the funds by the LA, then shouldn't he have gone to the Government Auditing Dept and followed any procedures thereafter and exhausting all legal avenues.
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My knowledge of this case is only what I have read in the Globe, but I do know one thing, if you try to perform a citizens arrest on a judge and your mates invade the court, it ain't going to go well.
.
Did he have any legal representaion or is he a barrack room lawyer? This guy isn't a martyr, he is actually costing the Tax payer money, he would have a gained more respect if he had followed all leagal avanues before performing any stunts.
King Tut says...
6:03pm Wed 8 Aug 12