Parking Eye Court Action

Sirdan

smithy2121 wrote: »

Are we still going with the whole insinuating that I must work for Parking Eye? I thought we were well past that to be honest.

What you have to understand (and don't seem to) is that in my only personal experience of PPC's I have been taken to court. In your personal experience I believe '5 -YES -FIVE Parking Enforcement Notices from a well known Private Parking Company -all ignored -NOTHING HAPPENS except junk mail'. You say 'NOTHING HAPPENS' in capitals, that might not say the word never, but you seem quite clear that nothing happens. I am not saying you are wrong, you probably are not, I am saying that if I had been aware of my case previously, if I were to lose, then I may have had to think again as to whether to go all the way.

Many of your points on scammers are in my defence and court bundle so I am fully aware of them. I know CCJ's do not set precedents but surely if I were to lose the case then somebody in the same position as me should get the full facts before they make their decision.

I understand why you are fully against these people, nobody hates them as much as me I assure you, but you fail to see both sides. Some people cannot afford to pay £350 if they were to lose a case and may wish to pay up early to save all the hassle. It has taken a lot of time and hard work from myself and AlexisV to fight this and sometimes it feels like £120 may not have been a bad price to pay to just forget about it all together.

Smithy

I'm not insinuating anything ..but you seem to be buying into the whole "pay up it's easier to avoid the hassle" mindset which is the whole basis of an entire industry of rip-off merchants.
I hope you will have plenty to say when you actually win !

Everyone has a choice and the advice given here is accurate .
99% + you have to pay nothing versus less than 1% you have to pay the charge plus court costs ..for one charge that is around £200..on 99/1 odds ..your choice.
My only qualification of the advice given here is that if you are not inclined to take the 99/1 gamble then (in fact in reality it's better odds than that ) then pay straight away to avoid made up escalations.

If I had done that I would be (if paid within 14 days) £200 out of pocket ..this forum has saved me that money and I know that pepipoo does great defences that usually win ...still if people are happy to roll over and be ripped off that's their choice ..I suppose.

smithy2121

At what point in me taking this as far as I can, taking all the advice, ignoring them and having a days holiday from work to go to court have I bought into the 'pay up its easier to avoid the hassle' mindset or rolled over?

I will have a lot to say if / when I actually win and I will thank everybody on here for the advice of course.

If I was to brush losing the case under the carpet then the advice here would not necessarily be accurate.

It is a lot easier to say to people 'don't take the gamble' when it isn't your money you are playing with. How often to people deal on deal or no deal when you would have gone on and took the gamble? When it is real money it is a bit different.

Interested where the 99/1 comes from being a financial analyst for one of the biggest bookmakers in the country but that's for another day!

Smithy

Sirdan

smithy2121 wrote: »

At what point in me taking this as far as I can, taking all the advice, ignoring them and having a days holiday from work to go to court have I bought into the 'pay up its easier to avoid the hassle' mindset or rolled over?

I will have a lot to say if / when I actually win and I will thank everybody on here for the advice of course.

If I was to brush losing the case under the carpet then the advice here would not necessarily be accurate.

It is a lot easier to say to people 'don't take the gamble' when it isn't your money you are playing with. How often to people deal on deal or no deal when you would have gone on and took the gamble? When it is real money it is a bit different.

Interested where the 99/1 comes from being a financial analyst for one of the biggest bookmakers in the country but that's for another day!

Smithy

Once again you protest too much ..you have basically come on here today and said the advice given is wrong.

It isn't, in fact until you get into court there is still NO evidence of Parking Eye taking anyone into court ,let alone winning.

So why not wait for the result before making the leap that our advice may be flawed.
(Unless you already know the result of course )

And yes you're right the odds are far greater than 99/1 against a parking company taking you to court and winning.

This forum and pepipoo give the correct advice , indeed even if you lose I'll wager that your advisor Alexis would still support the inital advice to ignore parking companies.
One win does not undermine that advice as you seem to suggest.

Why you feel you have to write posts which attack our advice and this forum at this stage is beyond me ..it certainly doesn't do you any favours.

Oopsadaisy

please people...put away the handbags; this has been done to death [twice now].

AlexisV

Lay off smithy please folks. Nobody likes messing about with court, but it's an unfortunate part of being part of a society I'm afraid.

Even paying these parasites doesn't necessarily make them go away. I've seen payers hounded just because they're marked as payers and so might be threatened into paying more if they send out letters stating the charge has suddenly gone up again.

Sirdan

AlexisV wrote: »

Lay off smithy please folks. Nobody likes messing about with court, but it's an unfortunate part of being part of a society I'm afraid.

Even paying these parasites doesn't necessarily make them go away. I've seen payers hounded just because they're marked as payers and so might be threatened into paying more if they send out letters stating the charge has suddenly gone up again.

Perhaps he should concentrate on the case for now then, and leave his thoughts on our advice till after the result ?

I still maintain that up until this case came to light there was no evidence whatsoever of Parking Eye going to court and as such the advice ignore them "they never go to court" was accurate when given.

To complain about it being inaccurate now rankles somewhat when the OP has received as much help as he has so far !!

Hopefully in future we will be able to say "Ignore Parking Eye ,they've only done court once and they lost! !:)

smithy2121

Sirdan wrote: »

Perhaps he should concentrate on the case for now then, and leave his thoughts on our advice till after the result ?

I still maintain that up until this case came to light there was no evidence whatsoever of Parking Eye going to court and as such the advice ignore them "they never go to court" was accurate when given.

To complain about it being inaccurate now rankles somewhat when the OP has received as much help as he has so far !!

Hopefully in future we will be able to say "Ignore Parking Eye ,they've only done court once and they lost! !:)

I only came on here to give people an update as I know there are people following this.

I hope we can say that as well obviously, and I will be here to give that advice. I know you have a bee in your bonnet about me and have had since last year but I only came on to update everybody on what was happening.

If you read my posts instead of just replying to what you think I am saying you would have seen me say 'I fully agree that people should ignore them' in my post yesterday and I still fully agree with that.

I have at no point complained about the advice being inaccurate, I in fact said 'I am not saying you are wrong, you probably are not, I am saying that if I had been aware of my case previously, if I were to lose, then I may have had to think again as to whether to go all the way'. Surely how everybody would feel if advice they were given turned out to be incorrect in any walk of life.

The people I have received help from on this (and who have never insinuated I am a fake from the moment I proved I wasn't) know who they are and I hope they know how much they have been appreciated and I could never thank them enough.

Smithy

ripped_off_driver

Alexis, I am sure that you have this well in hand but there are a number of Parking Eye specific points that you may wish to include in any defence:

(1) the case where an aggrieved motorist took PE to court and proved that no contract existed (Riyaz Patel v ParkingEye, Preston County Court, May 2010). A press account of the decision can be found here:

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/trainee_solicitor_wins_parking_ticket_case_for_brother_1_777088

(2) The fact that PE apparently created two bogus online forums, spacetopark.co.uk and carparker.co.uk, which according to publicly available records were established by Gary Mawhinney in June 2009. These sites contained obviously false and bogus postings stating that PE invoices are enforceable andthat invoice recipients should pay up and generally praising PE's operations. Why would a parking company which believes that its invoices are legitimate set out to mislead readers in this way?

(3) The statements on PE correspondence that the RK can be legally liable for payment of the invoice, despite the fact that only the driver of the vehicle at the time can have entered into any contract. A direct breach of the BPA Code of Practice and useful to mention because PE will no doubt make a big deal of BPA membership and CoP compliance.

(4) The black-and-white chequered letters used by PE which could be taken as an attempt to mimic police notices. Add to this letters from agents used by PE such as ccscollect which make reference to utilising bailiffs, seizing property or affecting credit records without making clear that any such actions could only follow a successful court claim and unpaid judgement. Both are helpful to make out the "in terrorem" test for an unlawful penalty.

Sirdan

smithy2121 wrote: »

I only came on here to give people an update as I know there are people following this.

I hope we can say that as well obviously, and I will be here to give that advice. I know you have a bee in your bonnet about me and have had since last year but I only came on to update everybody on what was happening.

If you read my posts instead of just replying to what you think I am saying you would have seen me say 'I fully agree that people should ignore them' in my post yesterday and I still fully agree with that.

I have at no point complained about the advice being inaccurate, I in fact said 'I am not saying you are wrong, you probably are not, I am saying that if I had been aware of my case previously, if I were to lose, then I may have had to think again as to whether to go all the way'. Surely how everybody would feel if advice they were given turned out to be incorrect in any walk of life.

The people I have received help from on this (and who have never insinuated I am a fake from the moment I proved I wasn't) know who they are and I hope they know how much they have been appreciated and I could never thank them enough.

Smithy

I know perfectly well what you are saying , I just think you should have given some consideration as to how it might be interpreted by those who have no experience of these "scams".

To the unwitting some of what you write does kinda look like someone saying " beware the advice that nothing happens, I AM going to court and I may well lose costing me hundreds instead of 2x £60 ..this could happen to you !!!!!"

Whilst I acknowledge that it could possibly end up like that ...I think it is important for those not in the know to be aware of the astronomically small chances of this happening to them ..your post doesn't reflect that.

It is particularly misleading (although I'm sure it's not deliberate) as it relates specifically to a company that had NEVER done court until now .

If they had such great new Solicitors (Pannone) and valid cases why are there no other posters who are in your position ???
There certainly has not been any evidence that PE have gone on the attack as it were and are going to pursue lots of cases.

I wish you every success in Court , I just wish you had chosen your words more carefully ,that's all.

Vade in pace !

smithy2121

Ok, I apologise for my choice of words.

The things I say on here are only my opinions from my own personal viewpoint. I am sure a lot of the things you say are based around your own personal experience as well. With all due respect you have not had this hanging over you for 12 months and have not had to take holidays from work and keep £350 spare just in case as well as deal with a court who seem totally incapable of dealing with anything, not to mention all the effort Alexis has put into this.

If / when I win it will have been worth every second of frustration I have encountered, but until then I am entitled to my opinion.

I repeat, I still think people should IGNORE anything from PPC's, they do not deserve any money from us and if they were to get some lets make sure it costs them just as much or more in solicitors costs and court fees.

I do also think the people who have got to page 11 of this post are not the people who are looking for a bit of advice, but people hoping to hear good news from my case!!

Smithy