Parking fines - Bristow and Sutor

Pinkprincess2881

Hello,

Im new here and im wondering if you can help me. A few years ago i received two parking fines off Coventry Council. Both fines totalled £70. They sent the two fine letters to my old address and then they called in Bristow and Sutor solicitors who are also balliffs. To keep a long story short they charged me nearly one thousand pounds for two visits whilst i was at work and then popped out in the van even though i had kept up with repayments. I saw my local councillor a couple of years ago and he said that coventry council had every right to do this as i never responded to the original letters that were sent out ( i never received them)

I was wondering if i would be eligible to claim this money back as im disgusted even now years on that people can just add hundreds of pounds on.

Any help would be appreciated on this matter. Thank you :D

roonaldo

I doubt you can claim this back. What you have said doesnt stack up, the warden would have put the fines on your windscreen when the they were issued so you would have known of them from the offset.

The letters then went to old address as you (I asume) hadnt updated the address of car with DVLA which is a requirement to do so, on that basis you are at fault for not receiving them.

This is a very expensive mistake, you could have paid to park for what a couple of quid, then didnt pay the £70, so this has added up due to negligence.

[Deleted User]

You cannot claim this back unless you prove that the debt of the PCN was not valid.
I work for Parking Services at a large Council, if you told me this at the time I may have called back the charge and allowed you to pay the PCN cost, however I would look at the evidence you provided, as you are talking two this does seem quite strange.
As you did not deal with this at the time you lost your right to appeal at TPT, at this point now you are way out of time so I would not even have full details.

You could chase the collectors I guess, but if they are also legal I guess you need your own legal help unless of course you can do this yourself.

Best of luck though, everything is worth a try!.

[Deleted User]

Sorry you also mentioned the letters, you are looking at evidence of the following;
Original PCN attached to W/S and photographed
Expiry of 14 day discount period
NTO - Notice to owner
Charge Cert
Reminder following Charge Cert
Letter to confirm intention to register debt
Debt registered at court and the admin fee confirmed
Then letters to state debt will be passed for collection
Collection letters

So you need a very specific reason as to where these letters may be?
But the DVLA would have provided the address of the registered keeper at the time of the contravention and your current address, if you did not update this then that would also be an offence, if you moved in the meantime then that would have been your case to only pay the original Penalty Charge... HTH