Collections firm chased MP ‘just for being called Alan Brown’

A NATIONALIST MP has criticised a private collection company ‘who decided they would just target random Alan Browns’ over an outstanding bus fare.

Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP Alan Brown said he was served with court warrants for the fare on a London bus, which was nothing to do with him.

At business questions he said: ‘Hopefully the House will indulge me in a personal story.

‘Last year I received a court warrant at my home in Scotland. It turned out it was an Alan Brown in London, with a London address, skipped a bus fare and was caught by the inspector.

‘That Alan Brown did not respond to any correspondence, so an additional fine was levied in his absence.

‘It was passed to a private collection company, who decided they would just target random Alan Browns, and so served a warrant on myself in Scotland.

‘The company wouldn’t budge, but I managed to get the court to cancel proceedings. But just last week I got another notification of a warrant on my property, live as of yesterday.

‘So therefore, can we have a debate in this House about how the English courts system and Transport for London are using private companies whose sole objective is to extract money from people?’

As MPs laughed, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said: ‘Maybe we should have a debate on why so many people are called Alan Brown. That’s the fundamental issue here.

‘But he raises a very serious point and I do encourage him to seek an adjournment debate on his particular issue.’

‘Caught by the inspector’