Ukcps court claim

JLMBEAR

Hi all,

Please could anybody help me.
I have received a northampton county court claim from ukcps for an outstanding parking ticket.
The residents in my block of flats all receive a space with a permit, but very often visitors park in spaces meaning theres no room.
ukcps has issued thousands of their tickets which everybody ignores as well as the threatening letters they follow up with.
When i was moving out of my flat I had my parents car in my spot and returned to pick up some boxes, parking in an empty space.However i did not see any ticket on my car, although it may have been removed by somebody else or blown off, and I never received any follow up letter. Then a summons arrived.
I have returned the acknowledgement of service form, and now need to file a defence, today is the last day to do it.
I have been through alot of the sites and forums for information but seem a bit confused as to what to put as a defence.
Could anybody please pm me a basic defence to submit to the court against this ticket.
Many thanks in advance

JLMBEAR

wiogs

I am sure someone will be along with pertinent advice but start reading this

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

"ukcps has issued thousands of their tickets which everybody ignores as well as the threatening letters they follow up with." - wonder why people are ignoring their tickets and letters? Silly thing to do

SevenTowers

The best place to start is the Prankster's guide, it is geared towards Parking Eye, but most of the same arguments and defence points will apply;

http://www.parking-prankster.com/court-claim.html

Hot_Bring

Yes, use the Pranksters guide.

I don't mean to be rude but you've had nearly a month to sort this and you wait until the last day to ask for assistance ? I hope you will be better prepared for court. If not you might as well pay the invoice now.

Coupon-mad

JLMBEAR wrote: »

i did not see any ticket on my car, although it may have been removed by somebody else or blown off, and I never received any follow up letter. Then a summons arrived.
I have returned the acknowledgement of service form, and now need to file a defence, today is the last day to do it.
JLMBEAR

A 'summons' did not arrive - this isn't a criminal court matter!

today is the last day to do it.

So you mean that you have added 5 days for 'service' to the 28 days from the date of the court papers (i.e. you've added 33 days and that's now)?

Send via MCOL electronically, a defence based on what you read in the Prankster's Guide but also how about starting at square one and reading the small claims links in the NEWBIES thread, top of this forum, which includes linked example defences on people's threads, and a whole link of claims won by defendants (includes two UKCPS wins by forum posters, one recent, one older but relevant to you).

Let us know when you have defended it or whether in fact you have a couple more days.

JLMBEAR

Thanks for your help and advice.
I posted a defence based on various other posts and information from the Pranksters Guide.
I recently received the Directions questionnaire which I have filled in and returned.
I have just received a telephone call from the Mediation Service who wishes to set up telephone mediation. I have agreed to this request, and now wonder what is my next move regarding the mediation.
I read that I should write to the judge asking for the case to be referred to popla once it has been assigned to my local court, but wondered if there was any chance of getting it stopped via the mediation
Thanks in advance

The_Deep

ukcps has issued thousands of their tickets which everybody ignores as well as the threatening letters they follow up with.

What does that tell you? It says to me that they know that they cannot enforce these charges. I very much doubt therefore if they would risk putting this in front of a judge.

Parking in someone else's space is trespass, the landowner would need to take you to court, not a coterie of knuckling dragging ex-clampers miffed because you ignored their worthless T&C.

Tough it out, they will blink first.

Coupon-mad

Telephone mediation is pointless as the mediator will want the two parties to meet halfway and your stance is 'if it's the day you were thinking of', you were merely loading boxes (there are no loading restrictions on site for residents). The car was not parked, no grace period was allowed, no attempt to mitigate their loss if the ticketer merely seized the moment to issue an immediate invoice when you were indoors. You owe nothing and will pay nothing and just want a valid appeal chance seeing as you received no letters about this matter at all, just the court papers out of the blue. This is not a matter that a court mediator can help with because there is no background of any disputed debt, there is no debt.

So you should now be sending the court an immediate letter asking for POPLA instead, as linked in the NEWBIES thread post #5 about small claims. A UKCPS case was stayed for POPLA a few weeks ago. You could also add on the bottom of it that if the Court does not stay the claim for POPLA instead, which does have 100% prospects of success in resolving cases one way or the other (and you agree to be bound by the POPLA adjudication) then instead you ask that your case is stayed pending the Court of Appeal case in ParkingEye v Beavis (unless you would rather get your hearing done and dusted sooner and you feel it's strong).

You are at the same stage as this poster who I have helped a bit:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4901544

So do send him a pm to compare notes about your defences so you can help each other (different car parks but your evidence packs should have the same transcripts in them - don't miss any). Both cases are likely to go to a hearing unless you can get them stayed for POPLA or the Beavis outcome at the CoA. Make sure you both have the strongest defence bundles you can put together, don't miss any cases. I just listed a load of them here for another person likely to get a court case v UKPCS so look here too:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=65844198#post65844198


HTH

Coupon-mad

The_Deep wrote: »

ukcps has issued thousands of their tickets which everybody ignores as well as the threatening letters they follow up with.

What does that tell you? It says to me that they know that they cannot enforce these charges. I very much doubt therefore if they would risk putting this in front of a judge.

Parking in someone else's space is trespass, the landowner would need to take you to court, not a coterie of knuckling dragging ex-clampers miffed because you ignored their worthless T&C.

Tough it out, they will blink first.

UKCPS have put several before a Judge:

http://www.ukcps.net/court.php

...and they only lost one recently (UKCPS v Gaskell who was helped on pepipoo with his defence). Admittedly in some cases the defendant hasn't shown up but not in every case. One other case was stayed for POPLA and that was this one:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=87364

And they also lost UKCPS v Murphy in 2012 (JLMBEAR, you will find all cases 'won by defendants' - which you should use some of - are in post #5 of the NEWBIES thread in a link).

JLMBEAR you will need to print off the transcripts of certain cases including those 2 UKCPS cases and also ObServices v Thurlow, CEL v McCafferty (both appeal cases so they have clout and the Judge may take them into account as the Judge did in the Gaskell case, read it and include it!). From what I have seen over the years on these forums, Judges like stuff about signage being not as shown (did they change the signs between the parking event and the evidence pack they are blagging is relevant?). Judges do consider stuff about penalties so include UKCPS v Murphy 2012 (does the UKCPS contract with the landowner have that word 'penalties' in it?). They take heed of appeal case decisions and if you cite a case you must have the transcript in your bundle and copies with you in court to hand out as well. Be prepared, remember that UKPCS will present their evidence in a ring-binder, all numbered with exhibits (evidence) so try to replicate that and put your wording in 1.5 line spaced Times New Roman font, as simple things like that can help your evidence be well-received by the Judge.

HTH

The_Deep

Yes coupon mad, I am aware that they do court, but for overstays, non payment, blue badge abuse, etc. Have they ever tried to take a landlord or tenant to court in an "own space" scenario? I know of none

Mr Gaskell was parked in a shopping complex car park as were Mr Justice and Mr Murphy.

I will maintain until I am blue in the face. No PPC in their right mind would ever take a person to court if that person had leasehold rights to park IN THEIR OWN SPACE, and their paper can therefore be ignore with impunity.

bazster

The most recent information I'm aware of (for the year to end September 2013) shows that UKCPS filed 900 court cases in a year.

It's wrong to scare people into appealing when they are dealing with a non-litigious PPC, they should be given the facts (e.g. PPC XYZ has never been known to take anyone to court). It is equally wrong to tell people to tough it out when the PPC is known to issue court claims in significant numbers. The risk may be low, but it exists. Give the people the facts, let them make their own decisions.