Towed at the drop off at Luton airport

jean232

I have made a search for his VOSA operators licence and it seems that it has been revoked.

jpm321

I have brought this to the atention of the VOSA inteligence team that looked at my case and provided the receipt and photo of the sign for evidence
and even told them were they can find EVS waiting to pounce or ponce.

maybe VOSA could leave their car in the drop off point and catch them read handed !

Jean- would you be happy to pass your detail onto VOSA if the need it ? and yes the VOSA licence was indeed revoked at a public enquiry many years ago

jean232

I have sent him a Notice of Intended Legal Action stating:

I am writing to you in regards to the towing charge at Luton Airport on the 22nd October 2012. I have not received a reply to my email dated the 21st November 2012 asking for the specific legislation that enables your company to proceed with towing charged at Luton Airport.

I am hence as a legal requirement sending you a notice of intended litigation before legal proceedings are issued in the county court.

Based on my recent investigations, the Luton Airport Byelaws have not stated the legal rights to any company to remove or immobilise any vehicle in its parking premises.

Furthermore and based on information sourced from VOSA, Endeavour Vehicle Services HGV operator's licence has been revoked since 30th April 2009. As a result, Endeavour vehicles services should have suspended its operating services.

Any judgement by the court against you would be made available to any interested parties, including Luton Airport management, APCOA and VOSA, via the register of judgements, orders and fines and remains for 6 years which would ultimately affect your business.

To avoid taking action in court, I am willing to use alternative dispute resolution to resolve this problem.

Please contact me with your proposals for settlement within 7 days of the date of this letter.

taffy056

Have you also sent this apcoa and Luton airport ? Would have thought they would liable as these are their agents

Half_way

Theres something iteresting regarding this over on pepipoo

from pepipoo

the ante just went up on the Luton Airport thread.

its on the NCP towed car thread

taffy056

What a private prosecution ?

jpm321

To summarise my case

Sep 2011 the Start
I Return to NCP train station car park to find my car had been taken by Mr Nigel Barrington-Fuller T/A Endeavour Vehicle Services who was instructed by NCP to seize and store my car for non-payment of alleged debts which another driver had caused

After several calls and emails to Mr Stuart Marchant who was the Car Park Manager and Mr NBF I was unable to convince them that I was not using the cars at the time the alleged PCCNs were issued, and they must pursue the Driver rather than the RK, they refused to listen even after me notifying then of my intention to seek an injunction and sue for damages.

On September 23 2011 I locate Mr NBF's house which is not his registered business address or yard, and see my car in his front garden blocked in by another car, also I see other cars with NCP PCCNs attached to the windscreen, after confronting Mr NBF he refuses to release my car and informs me he is a Barrister and I have no legal right to my car back as its a LIEN,
***I arrived at his house with Female who dropped me at the end of the road and I walked to his house***, I also called the Police who said "it was a civil matter" and they did not attend

Nov 2011
After filing an application for an injunction hearing in late October, I get a date for the hearing of 4th November 2011, I turn up on my own and NCP send a Barrister, I successfully get the injunction but am told by the court to pay a sum of £650 to the court as security.

On the 11th Nov I picked my car up from Mr NBF

During Nov 2011 I make NCP an offer to settle for £2000 but they refuse and counter offer which meant them keeping my £650 which I gave to the court and we both walk away I refuse this , there is one more offer of drop hands, again I refuse, both offers Including a confidentiality agreement

January 2012 first hearing at Chelmsford CC me alone NCP Send same Barrister, hearing is for an application for NCP to issue a counterclaim for the outstanding PCCN's totalling £2700, the application is granted

February 2012 another hearing which allocates case to the small claims track again Barrister turns up for this one

March 2012 There is a further hearing when we both agree to try mediation again I represent myself and NCP send same Barrister

April 2012 mediation fails I make other offers to settle, which are ignored

Not much happens now until August 3rd at the final hearing in the small claims

August 3rd 2012, turn up at court expecting the final outcome but the Judge decides that the case is to big for the small claims track due to amount of evidence both law and Factual and the possible implications for NCP if im proved right, therefore re allocates the case to the Multi-Track which exposes me to NCP costs should I lose. NCP send me a cost schedule for approx. £35000 for the case so far

Of course at this point im seriously worrying about my potential exposure to their costs although you can't normally claim costs in the small claims track there could have been a risk of the judge awarding NCP there costs from Small claims although low risk it was still there in my mind.
I then had to make a decision on whether to throw in the towel or seek legal representation. So I decided the fight on and contacted Mathew Hodson a Barrister from London I approached him with the idea of taking my case on under a CFA, he came back to me and explained that the case was pretty strong and on that basis accepted the CFA, he then contacted Andrew King of Lennons Solicitors to instruct him and take over the running of the case again under a CFA

This gave me some relief as now I had the benefit of legal representation and they then arranged some ATE insurance which put my mind at rest and gave me the determination to fight on.

Once NCPs legal team got notice of my representation they made a couple of offers first was for £500 in full settlement Including a confidentiality agreement which didn’t include costs the second was for £1000 Including a confidentiality agreement again without costs these were both refused.
A counter offer was put to them to give me £2000 and pay my costs the didn’t reply UNTIL the Friday before the Hearing planned for Tuesday , the accepted the offer added a confidentiality agreement and said the paper work would be with my Solicitor on Monday, so we all assumed the hearing was off and I was relieved however there was some disappointment as I did want to beat them in the court and so did my legal team.


So Monday the day before the hearing 2pm no sign of the paper work, my solicitor contacts NCP solicitor to ask for an update and was told "its coming " at around 4pm on the day before the hearing the paper work was finally received. However there is one slight problem MR NBF is not part of the settlement agreement he still wants his day in Court, so we have a dilemma NCP are out of the hearing , have the confidentiality agreement and Mr NBF continues the fight but where are the Costs ? had my solicitor not seen the amendment then we may not of attended the hearing and Mr NBF would have.

There were many permutation on what was going on, so we decided at 6pm on Monday night to refuse the offer and attend the hearing the next day , as this was a trick that failed

Day 1 of the hearing
I was questioned mainly on my damages claim not much on the facts
Mr NBF was asked about his lack of VOSA licence and still claimed the recovery exemption, we discussed this and decided the Judge would probably be happy if we dropped this as we would spend to much time trying to prove him wrong and lose time on the main case, this turned out to please the judge
Mr NBF when questioned about my car in his garden told the court that "I turned up with 3 big blokes" when I was on my own !
He also provided a witness statement which included many photos of my house which included a communal car park and tried to tell the court all my neighbours cars were mine and my damages claim was rubbish as I had other cars to use, this of course fell on its !!!!!


Day 2 was spent discussing the Law and then Facts with both Barristers giving their submissions

Day 3 was Judgement day , Judge spent nearly 3 hours giving his judgement in which he criticised me for not giving the other drivers details at the beginning of the saga, but then it was explained to him that I was a litigant in person and from day one NCP threw Arthurs Vs Anker at me and Mr NBF claimed he was a Barrister, also quoting the law and telling me I didn’t have a leg to stand on therefore was distracted from normal resolution.
There was evidence that I did give NCP the drivers details but this was missed and brought to the Judges attention during the costs hearing
The main thing that was mentioned was that NCP legal team never once asked who the driver was.
The fact that they also never replied to my offers to settle or further mediation didn’t go down well

Although the Judge wasn’t convinced with the VCS, VOSA and Penalties part of my case he judged on the Agency clause and that the T&C were unfair under the Unfair Terms in consumer contracts regs although the penalties bit could have been argued it was not needed

The Judge wasn’t too pleased with the stunt that was attempted on the day before the hearing and did confirm that had anyone had of turned up after the settlement was agreed the case would have been thrown out, but that was a risk we were not going to take

so now we are working on the actual costs which they have to pay

So after 14 months of this I don’t know what im going to do with my spare time

Coupon-mad

Very well done - especially to carry on once you saw that their costs were already £35000 and that you were exposed to possibly being liable for them!

:T:T:T

Rachelkoo

I had the same penalty, I was so desperate and needed to go for a whee, came back in 5 min litterally to find out that my car is about to be towed. Am I supposed to urinate in public to avoid leaving the car unattended???

ManxRed

Did you pay any money to have the car released?

Jean also has a thread over on www.pepipoo.com (Private Parking forum) where she is getting advice on how to potentially get her money back.

You may start a new thread over there where you would receive similar help.