A case of mistaken identity has left a Picton man with his boat clamped and stickered by the Justice Ministry after it carried out a seizure order on the wrong man.
A court bailiff went to Steven James Frew's home in Picton on Thursday morning looking for Stephen Graham/Graeme Frew, who owes $7100 in a civil dispute.
Their first names are spelt differently and their second names are completely different.
Mr Frew's wife, Diane, of Picton, was at home that morning but did not hear anyone knock.
She spotted big yellow stickers on the couple's $75,000 boat when she checked the letterbox about midday.
She saw a notice in the letterbox and ripped the seizure stickers off the boat immediately. Mr Frew saw the lighter side and said it was lucky he was not planning on using the boat over the weekend.
"There's a little humour to it all, but there could be serious implications," he said.
It would have been different if the bailiff had seized their cars parked in the garage and Mrs Frew needed to get to the hospital in an emergency, he said.
He called the ministry, who told him Stephen Frew owed $7100 in a civil dispute from Invercargill.
The ministry offered to go back to the property and remove the clamp but it was still attached early this morning.
Mrs Frew said bailiffs should make sure they had the right people before seizing or clamping any property.
"We could have sold the house and moved out and there could have been someone else living there."
The incident was embarrassing and inconvenient, she said.
A neighbour who saw the bailiff had offered to help pay their bills thinking they were having financial trouble.
Justice Ministry collections general manager Bryre Patchell apologised to Mr Frew and said the mistake was "human error".
"The court is careful to ensure that it has the correct address and person before taking the enforcement action.
"However, in this case human error resulted in the civil debt being incorrectly associated with Mr Frew."
Staff always tried to speak to the person involved. Mr Frew's boat was clamped because the bailiff was not able to talk to anyone at the house, he said.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Picton man Steven Frew had his boat wrongly clamped by the Justice Ministry after it failed to check it had the right man.
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