Excel parking could they take me to court?

an9i77

I parked in an excel car park for five mins to take something back to a shop, didn't want to pay the £1 parking fee, so got a ticket. Ignored it for several months and they are now sending solicitors letters saying I owe £142.

I've decided to ignore any correspondence from them until or unless I get correspondence from a court, if I do should I cave in and pay at that point?

Presumably a letter from a court would mean they are serious?

i am worried about getting a CCJ if I did not respond if it went to court.

Would I best to contact them if it does go to court or just continue to ignore?

Is there any chance they'd drop the case if I did not respond to initial court papers or is it not worth risking that, and would I be best to pay up?

Please advise as they are sending increasingly ominous letters from their solicitors don't know where this will all end but I don't want to get court papers next!

trisontana

In the very, very unlikely event you do get proper court papers then there are many people on here that will help with your defence. But it's not going to happen. Stop worrying.

an9i77

Thank you. The solicitors is Roxburghe by the way, anyone heard of them?

cgk1

an9i77 wrote: »

I parked in an excel car park for five mins to take something back to a shop, didn't want to pay the £1 parking fee, so got a ticket. Ignored it for several months and they are now sending solicitors letters saying I owe £142.

I've decided to ignore any correspondence from them until or unless I get correspondence from a court, if I do should I cave in and pay at that point?

Presumably a letter from a court would mean they are serious?

i am worried about getting a CCJ if I did not respond if it went to court.

Would I best to contact them if it does go to court or just continue to ignore?

Is there any chance they'd drop the case if I did not respond to initial court papers or is it not worth risking that, and would I be best to pay up?

Please advise as they are sending increasingly ominous letters from their solicitors don't know where this will all end but I don't want to get court papers next!

The "solicitors letters" - they are just a standard part of the scam, they don't actually mean anything.

If it ever goes to court - of course you'd need to defend it and not ignore it but that's highly unlikely - but even if it want to court and you lost (highly unlikely) then you'd still have to refuse to pay before they could get a CCJ.

trisontana

We have all heard of Roxburghe. If you look at the letter chains at the top of this forum you can see all their stupid letters.

Coupon-mad

It won't go to small claims but if it did you would NOT fold and pay. You'd defend it and win with help from here and from posters on pepipoo forums who have helped the odd poster that gets a Small Claim aimed at them (literally once in a blue moon!).

Excel have a problem with unclear signage for a start which you could use in your favour. Their signs have been inadequate and unclear in many car parks for a long time = FACT.

Read this article from the Plain Language Commission, about Excel's signs and the DVLA data ban imposed on them at the moment.

QUOTE
Excel Parking Services has been suspended from access to lucrative DVLA data for breaching the rules. The programme showed a misleading sign at its controversial car park at Ebbw Vale where Excel had plastered tape over some offending wording (see photo). It’s likely that Excel's signs nationwide have been similarly bodged. Given that Excel's managing director sits on the British Parking Association (BPA) committee overseeing private parking, it’s extraordinary that his company fell foul of the rules.
QUOTE

Oh and this link about the Martin Cutts Excel case & signs will also give you further insight into Excel and why they were recently banned:

tp://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/pl...2012_1b_mf.pdf

And who could forget the infamous Hetherington Jakeman small claim case too, that was also Excel in a very rare & very wayward foray into Court:

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/jud...legal-1-701811

No worries at all with this outfit. It will just be junk mail as it is for 99% of people.

Roxburghe aren't Solicitors and they are also currently disgraced, their CCA licence is under review by the OFT and they are also currently banned fom getting new data from the DVLA!

I am amazed you have not just searched the forum for 'Roxburghe' as a keyword search as they are mentioned everywhere, just a debt collector, just pen-pushers. See the 'PPC letter chains' thread for starters, 5th from top of the current parking forum. Do not take them seriously at all, nor when they use the 'Graham White' headed notepaper from the next drawer down in their call centre office.

ManxRed

Roxburghe's are actually powerless debt collectors, although a bloke called Michael Sobell, who is a solicitor, allows them to send letters out under the trading name 'Graham White' pretending they are from him.

He has issued about three court claims this year (to put it in perspective tens of thousands of 'Graham White' letters get sent out annually), and he's either backed down or had his claims struck out for being, well, daft.

The law is on your side. They tend to just stick to the scary letters as a ploy because court doesn't work for them and they know it.

DOWN WITH EXCEL!!

(sorry, thought I'd try and beat Perky to the punch).

bondy_lad

ignore these clowns, no matter what name they use,,excell/roxburghe/graham white,,they will hound you with threat o grams, hoping you will cave in and pay up,,remember this,you have a FAKE ticket/invoice, it aint real, so absolutely nothing, wil happen to you, oh yes,, they will send you you threats, but all are nonsense,now your honour about our FAKE ticket not being paid.relax and come back for reassurance when the threat o grams begin,, jobs a belter then.

fil_cad

Yes IGNORE the roxburghe jockstraps they only prey on soft touches who get worried about them LOL :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

an9i77

Thanks everyone I will file the letter under B for Bin, it is from Graham White acting for Roxburghe, I just wanted to know that they will not actually go to a court, if I do get any correspondence from a court i'll be back on here to show you guys!

I can see how they work, I thought myself quite strong but even I was tempted to cave following nasty letter.

I wonder how many people do pay up these 'fines', does anyone have the stats?

trisontana

At least 50%, probably more.