The Board of Guardians of British Jews is to issue a small claims notice at the Reading Beth Din (Jewish law court) against writers David Baddiel and Ben Elton over outstanding fees they have not paid to the Board.

Baddiel and Elton are two of the 1300 people who annually try and avoid paying the Board levy to support its work and the Board will now start to highlight those who refuse to pay.

Payments to the Board from Jewish men are expected to start from the age of 13, when in Jewish law they are responsible for their own mitzvahs (deeds) and one mitzvah is to make the annual Board donation.

“When both David and Ben were barmitzvah, they made an agreement in hebrew to pay the fee. For five years after his barmitzvah, David paid and for Ben it was just two years. Despite constant reminders, both of them have failed to continue with payments and therefore we have decided to claim a full claim for all payments. We are not prepared to write this off,” said Board president Harry Greenberg.

Both Baddiel and Elton were prepared to do their barmitzvah and accepted their passage from boy to man and therefore they should accept their full responsibility to make this payment.

Despite constant reminders, both men have ignored the requests to pay or have written back making various excuses.

In the case of David Baddiel, he wrote on 2 March 2003:

“Why are you hounding me? As far as I am aware, I did not agree to this and why didn’t my rabbi translate this piece of my barmitzvah into English? I’m not paying. So sue me and I’ll see you in synagogue about this.”

In the case of Baddiel, he currently owes the Board £3254.32 and in the case of Elton this is £5432.02 (both amounts include interest and reminder notices).

To help support the Board in its collection of fees, it is has recently appointed Edward Jacobs as its chief collection officer. Mr Jacobs, 42 from Bushey, Hertfordshire is a former director of the TV Licensing where he was responsible for collecting overdue payments.

“We are grateful to have Edward join as and to help support the work we do. We are confident that Edward and his team will help increase the money coming into the Board by dealing with those who constantly refuse to pay,” added Board president Harry Greenberg.

Mr Jacobs takes up his new role from December 12 2005.