Maintenance Defaulters – No Place to Hide
Obtaining a maintenance order for the support of yourself and/or your children is all very well, but what if you are dealing with an “Artful Dodger” who is determined not to pay you?
New provisions in the Maintenance Act just handed you two powerful new weapons –
Tracing defaulters: Serial maintenance dodgers are fond of going to ground to make themselves as hard as possible to trace. They’ll find that a lot harder to do now that maintenance courts can order network service providers (all “Electronic Communications Service Providers” are in the net on this one) to provide the court with all the contact information they have on the defaulter.
Blacklisting defaulters: Living the high life on credit is no longer an option for defaulters, who face blacklisting when courts send their personal particulars to credit bureaus.
These new provisions are in addition to the existing sanctions of criminal prosecution (up to 3 years’ imprisonment), imprisonment for contempt of court, attachment of assets and earnings etc.
