BAILIFFS were commissioned more than 6,000 times in a year to recover debts on behalf of Lancashire County Council.

The figure emerged at a meeting of the authority which heard claims that some cases had been mishandled.

But council leader Geoff Driver rejected the criticism and said there was “absolutely no evidence” of any wrongdoing by the companies which the council uses.

Labour opposition member, Lorraine Beavers, told councillors about an elderly couple in her Fleetwood East division who were visited by bailiffs after the debt from an unpaid parking fine of £80 mounted to more than £400.

She said: “The couple had appealed against the original penalty and thought that it was still under investigation, because they believed they had not received any correspondence from this council to inform them otherwise.

“Last year, the bailiffs arrived at their front door – the couple were expecting a decorator…and invited the bailiff in.

“The husband is being treated for terminal cancer and, after gaining entry by, in my opinion, dishonest means, the bailiffs then demanded the sum of £400.   The couple were horrified and under the stress of having belongings taken away paid what I think is an extortionate sum.”

However, Cllr Driver told her that she was “sensationalising a problem that doesn’t exist”.

“The reason that £80 became £435 was that for two months those people had ignored letters from the council and from the bailiffs – who are obliged, in law, to inform [residents] that their debt has been handed to them. So they might have been expecting the decorator, but they had also been informed that the bailiff would be calling if they didn’t pay the debt.

“In all cases we use bailiffs as a last resort and there’s absolutely no concrete evidence that any bailiffs engaged by this council have acted outside the guidance and the law,” he added, promising to investigate personally if any proof was presented.

But the meeting heard that, in the Fleetwood case, County Hall had paid the couple compensation.

Labour’s Gillian Oliver – who was presenting a motion calling for bailiffs used by the council to “know the law” and for the establishment of an independent regulator – said the council should monitor the track record of the firms which it uses.

“Would we care to record the complaints we receive with the same efficiency that goes into commissioning bailiffs?” Cllr Oliver asked.

She also cited a case in which a bailiff had spoken to a neighbour about a debtor’s case. Cabinet member for highways, Keith Iddon, told councillors he was confident that the authority “follows every procedure and sends every letter that should be sent”.