Hi Fraus. Really crappy day at work so just catching up.
Apologies if this has been addressed because I'm nearly a thread behind.
Mr Moo is a retired barrister and Civil Servant. I only mention this because I've been shouting tit about Jack for 2 and a half years and he has just politely nodded until now. I started saying the 'don't pay' nonsense and Mr Moo went absolutely ballistic.
Apparently if you 'don't pay' on October 1st like Jack is advising the squiggles to do, this is what will happen...
Energy companies are preparing for this. Morons like Monroe (direct quote from Mr Moo) are going to get people arrested. The energy companies could survive for years with absolutely everyone not paying their bills. They can literally flick a switch and everyone would be without anything.
If people cancel their DD then there would be a month or so grace period. Then they would go to court. They would, by force, install meters. They do have to go to court for these warrants, but they are issued in their thousands by one signature of a magistrate.
The resident is then subject to the much higher rate of payments and are not able to apply for any deals and therefore is always going to be worse off.
If the resident still refuses to pay, the energy company can apply for a summons to magistrate court for non payment of a court ordered sanction. If the resident refuses to attend, a fine will be awarded to the energy company in their absence. If the resident doesn't pay the fine they are defying a court order, which is a criminal offence.
They will be summoned to court under bail conditions. Failure to appear will be a criminal offence and an arrest warrant will be issued. Police will enforce the order and visit the resident at last known address and arrest the resident.
Resident will appear in court under arrest(therefore in cells and under remand) and will be questioned as to why they haven't complied. If they say 'well some random on the Internet told me I didn't have to pay by way of protest ' the Magistrate will almost certainly apply a sentence of prison in lieu of fines not paid.
Resident will now have a CRIMINAL record and that is not even the start of how much their credit score is fucked up.
(Apologies for terrible grammar and any inaccuracies but I was typing Mr Moo's words as he was rage shouting them. )