I earn £40k doing UK’s most hated job – I’m verbally abused & beaten up, I don’t care – I love it
STANDING in the hallway of a three-bedroom London house Sherry Marshall puts on her sweetest smile.
Holding a clipboard the nan-of-eight, 70, patiently tells the homeowner he has to pay up £350 in fines for an unpaid parking ticket.
Despite receiving multiple warnings, Sherry’s message doesn’t go down well and she finds herself being lifted by the waist by the burly six-foot fella who quite literally dumps her outside.
But it’s all in a day’s work for Sherry, who has worked as a bailiff for nine years.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, she says, “It’s an occupational hazard, and you come to expect that kind of behaviour.
“If a big bloke thinks that’s going to scare me, he’s wrong, it happens regularly and I just keep coming back.
“I pick myself up, dust myself off and start knocking again.”
Being forcibly removed from a doorstep is child’s play for Sherry who has encountered far worse while on the job.
“I have Britain’s most hated job so people can get very aggressive,” Sherry says.
“I’ve been pushed, shoved, spat at, thrown out the door and even had a drill held to my head and hospitalised I don’t scare easily.
“I love my job and I think people forget that I am actually here to help, I couldn’t care less if people think I’m an ogre.”
It isn’t just job satisfaction that keeps Sherry in her line of work with the debt collector admitting that there are plenty of financial perks.
“I earn £40,000 a year, way more than most people reading this, it’s the average which many bailiffs earn,” Sherry says.
“Being bailiff pays the mortgage and for exotic holidays.”
Divorced Sherry, lives in Worcestershire and has four children aged 48, 45, 43 and 31 and is a proud granny to eight grandchildren.
Standing a mere five-foot-three the petite, blonde haired, OAP and glam-ma has struck fear into even the most fearsome men and women who own money as one of the UK’s oldest and most successful bailiffs.
“I am unrelenting, I never give up,” Sherry admits.
“I know people hate me because I am a bailiff but it’s an amazing job, I love it.”
I have Britain’s most hated job so people can get very aggressive
Sherry Marshall
Sherry gained notoriety in 2021 when she appeared in the Channel 5 documentary series Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up.
The series followed Sherry and other High Court enforcement agents or so-called bailiffs as they attempted to recoup money on behalf of the claimants.
“I was the oldest woman and the shortest of the group by far, several people weren’t convinced I was a real bailiff,” she says.
When Sherry left school, she joined the Royal Air Force coworking as an air crew member of the VC10.
Sherry then went on to have a myriad of jobs including working as a chauffeur, a building site labourer, a waitress, a model and even spending ten years as a Justice of the Peace.
“I was a single mum and times were tough,” she explains.
“I never turned work down so I have done all sorts and considered everything an adventure.”
Amazingly Sherry decided to start a career as a bailiff when she was on the cusp of retirement.
“I had been fascinated with debt collecting,” she says.
I was 61 years old, an OAP in some people’s eyes and all my friends were retiring when I saw an ad for trainee bailiffs on Facebook in 2014
Sherry Marshall
“I was 61 years old, an OAP in some people’s eyes and all my friends were retiring when I saw an ad for trainee bailiffs on Facebook in 2014.
“My friends thought I’d be killed and tried to tell me I was bonkers but I fancied giving it a go so I applied.”
Sherry was immediately accepted first undertaking a four-day classroom training program and then six weeks on the job training watching experienced bailiffs do their job.
“Most of the trainees were big burly blokes, forty years younger than me but they were the ones who dropped out after the first few days of real-life training,” Sherry recalls.
“The abuse, the verbal attacks, the physical assaults I saw didn’t bother me.
“I became determined to find a way to be a successful bailiff and use my age, and tiny size to get the upper hand.”
Within three months Sherry was being given dozens of Courts Warrants a day.
She started collecting money owed for parking fines, council tax debt and Transport for London fines.
Wearing a black uniform and a stab proof vest with her blonde hair and makeup expertly done Sherry would then knock on the unsuspecting debtors door.
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“Most people are totally caught off guard by me,” she admits.
“I’m a little old gran asking them to hand over £350 for parking fine.
“Court warrants mean if you get your foot in the door you can gain legal entry but around 80 per cent of people are so confused by me, or think I am a pushover they let me in anyway.
“I have small feet and am good at balancing so I make the two feet rule work for me. It’s called a peaceful entry. I also wear a camera and record it.
“As a Bailiff being a sweet OAP is a superpower.”
According to Sherry, as soon as she explains she’s there to get £350 for an unpaid parking fine under a court warrant most people think it’s a joke.
She explains: “First, they tell me it isn’t their car, or they sold the car, or they hadn’t been driving it.
“Then they claim they didn’t know about the fine and haven’t received any correspondence.
“That’s when I tell them just how many letters they have received and that I put the last letter through their letter box yesterday.
“Ninety percent of the time all the unopened letters are on the hall table or sticking out of a drawer.
“The biggest misconceptions are people think I will believe their lies. They assume I don’t have the right of entry or the right to take away their TV’s computers and phones.
“I have been to recurring debtors’ homes and each time they tell me their mother has died.
I’m a little old gran asking them to hand over £350 for parking fine.
Sherry Marshall
“One man used the excuse six times.
“People think I am a pushover. I have a reputation for always getting people to pay up and for being unrelenting.”
Sherry’s job has put her in some frightening situations but she claims she’s totally unflappable.
“Men always wrongly assume I will scare easily,” she says.
“I stood my ground when a man held an electric drill to my head.
“I have been picked up and dropped outside five times and I have been pushed down the stair’s multiple times but it’s never put me off.”
In 2021 Sherry was hospitalised after being beaten up by a teenager white trying to collect money from his mother.
“I was of course shaken up by the experience but not enough to stop me from getting back out there,” she says.
“I refuse to let the bully’s win so I was back on the job within two weeks.”
Sherry admits she gets a high out of getting people to pay their fines.
“I live for the buzz of getting the creditors their cash,” she says.
“I celebrate every victory because it means my persistence has paid off.
As a Bailiff being a sweet OAP is a superpower
Sherry Marshall
“I get a real sense of satisfaction when we manage to get rich people who owe £150,000 or more to pay up.
“I always think of the person they owe the money to rather than the person I am taking it from.
“Whether it’s the Council or a pensioner done out of rent money or a big corporation it matters.”
Sherry says she has heard every excuse in the book when it comes to avoiding paying debts.
“People immediately tell me they dont have the money, they are poor, they have sick relatives, or they aren’t working,” she says.
“That’s when I start walking around their house putting stickers on items and taking the TV off the wall and putting the stereo or computer by the door.
“As soon as people see I am going to ‘take away’ their 50-inch TV or their beloved Xbox they miraculously find the cash.”
Sherry reveals she has a bluffing trick that helps get the debtors to pay up.
“I’ll call another bailiff in the area and put the phone on speaker,” she says.
I always think of the person they owe the money to rather than the person I am taking it from
Sherry Marshall
“I pretend he has the big van, and the debtor hears us arranging to come around and load up their items.
“That’s the quickest way to get cash.”
Sherry earns over £40,000 a year and her pay includes part of the debt which is collected.
“We work hard for our money,” Sherry says, “The more you collect the more money you make.
“I might make £40 for getting a payment in full for a £350 parking fine or more if the owing is higher.”
Sherry’s wage has allowed her to enjoy exotic holidays to Tahiti, the Caribbean, Cuba and Hawaii.
“I know people will troll me for being a bailiff but I say bring it on,” she says.
“I earn more than most people and it means that I have been able to visit amazing places.
“It’s a challenge and I am working for everyone because when fines go unpaid, potholes don’t get filled, people end up homeless.
“Say what you like about me but just remember it could be me knocking on your door one day.”
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