3 rd May 06 Ladies Luncheon - Jane Haynes
"My Life as a Lady Bailiff"
Our speaker was Jean Haynes (left) a farmers daughter from Essex - but as she said not the original Essex Girl!
This was a most interesting and humorous presentation of the problems, topics outside of the normal Probus membership experiences and interesting cases especially involving a group of folk who tend to arrive and despoil property that does not belong to them, but as Jean says perhaps not reported on a world wide web site, so if you wish to hear the hilarious details then find out where Jean is going to talk next and join the audience.
Jean was a Director of a debt collecting company, then became a Certificated Bailiff 25 years ago. She is a member of the Certificated Bailiff Association of England and Wales. Jean worked commercially in England and Wales executing Distress Warrants for outstanding rent for large organisations. Jean had us in fits of laughter when she outlined her particular process of obtaining this certificate, as the profession was and still is dominated by men of burly disposition, rather large in stature and very muscular with pug noses to match, Jane does not have any of those characteristics and was held to sarcastic and ribald comments, never the less she persevered and as stated above became one of the few UK bailiffs.
During her time Jean has worked for H M Revenue & Customs levying distress for outstanding VAT. As you can imagine she met all sorts of characters in her line of business and therefore enthralled us with many tales.
There are, as you may imagine very few female Bailiffs in the country so June spoke on the subject with a different view on what can sometimes be a dangerous occupation. She told us she was always backed by as she said by her “Bover Boy” or in the extreme cases the Police.
On one early occasion she arrived at a site followed by her "boys" with two flat loaders with two recently repossessed JCB's (only on route back to a storage compound) and conveniently used these as a method or was it a threat against those who refused to move, this had the desired result although it was only a bluff and she became known within the fraternity as "her with the two diggers"
Her talk was interesting and humorous and hence after question time when David Smart gave a vote of thanks all present, about 65 responded with very warm applause.
More about the Bailiffs role in British society can be found on this web site just CLICK the logo below.
The meeting concluded with the Presidents wife Jill Whittington giving a delightful vote of thanks on behalf of all visitor for the Club's kind invitation and the excellent repast enjoyed by all, she joined Richard to thank Eric Hussey for all his careful arrangement for the occasion.
We were also pleased to welcome Bob Russell who visited us whilst in the UK (he is on a European /USA tour of aeronautical sites), Bob hails from near Perth in Australia and has been President of his Probus Club in Mandurah Western Australia he is retired, living in Mandurah one hour south of Perth after spending his life developing farms and farming Sheep, Cattle, Wheat, Barley and Oil Seeds and his hobby is flying being a qualified pilot for many years.
Bob spoke to the assembled company about his Club in Australia and brought greetings from down under, he mentioned if any members find themselves heading for the Perth area they will be more than welcome, Bob can be contacted through this webmaster. On route from London to Epsom at Victoria station he found he was in a bomb scare and all folk had to clear the station, after a frantic phone call hiding behind a brick wall, the intrepid Bob found a taxi willing to take him direct to Epsom, well at a cost but all Australians are rich or is that another myth?More about Mandurah here..................
A few photographs of the Ladies Lunch May 2006
