Parking Eye CCJ Set Aside Appeal

Clive81

Hello,
First post on here and any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
This is a rather long tale but I will try and cut it as short and make it as succinct as possible.I used the Grosvenor casino car park Bolton last August as a legitimate customer. As I drove into the car park there is a big sign that says Free to Customers of the Casino.Underneath this is wrote Validation on demise.As far as I could understand the car park was free for customers.Validation on demise does not make sense in English as far as I'm concerned. Anyway I used the casino for a couple of hours and drove away after. A few weeks later I received a letter from Parking Eye demanding I pay a £60 fine! I took advice from Internet message boards which say to ignore these letters and as far as I was concerned I thought it was a scam as I was under the impression the car park was free to customers of the Casino.
Anyway over the next 6 months I received a few more of these letters and as advised online I binned them. Now then getting to the point about a month ago I received a letter from Debt Recovery ltd saying Parking Eye had been to court and had successfully obtained a CCJ against me and that I needed to pay £200!!! I checked with Trust Online and this CCJ was obtained at the end of April.I also checked with Northampton Court and according to them they sent out court papers to my correct home address at the start of April. I just state that I do not recall getting these papers, although I am not disputing they were sent out.
Next part...my wife saw this debt recovery letter and in a panic paid the debt so now the CCJ is marked as satisfied.
I contacted Grosvenor Casino around two weeks ago and they can confirm I was a customer of the Casino during the times I was parked on the Casino Car Park so I was legitimately using it. Also, they said that you are supposed to put your vehicle registration into a little screen as you walk into the casino. I was not told of this when I used the casino and when I have been in the other day it is not clearly displayed either.
They said that they get problems with this all the time people use the casino forget to put their reg in the machine and subsequently get a parking fine form parking eye. However, they continued by saying that if I had brought the parking letter in to them they would have contacted parking eye and wrote the fine off!!!!
They added this is something they do all the time!!
You can see I am fuming here as I have taken bad advice online and now I have a CCJ for ignoring a parking fine which in fact is not a parking fine as I was using the car park as a valid customer!!
Next part.... Now then, I plan to appeal to the courts to have this CCJ set aside and I believe that I have a strong case to be successful here...actually I believe that I can't lose in this situation.
However I would like some advice as nothing is ever straight forward!!
Here's why I believe I have a no lose argument...
1. I was using the car park as a legitimate customer and I have proof of this from the Casino
2. The car park is free for customers
3. The car park is free for customers albeit when vehicle registration is entered. However this is not clearly signed or advised anywhere.
4. The car park is free for customers and if you forget to put your registration in you will receive a parking fine. However, when presented to Grosvenor they will get Parking eye to waive this fine.
5. The signage on entering the casino car park clearly states free for customers and the words Validation upon demise do not make sense!!
6. I do not recall receiving the court papers so did not have a chance to contest this argument at that stage.
7. The fact the debt has been paid is not an admission of guilt. It can not be as parking is free to customers!! This was paid in panic by my wife using her debit card.

Please advice where you can here I want this unnecessary CCJ removed as soon as possible. I understand I now have to fill in an N244 form and pay £155 for the privilege of appealing. I also understand this is an unnecessary mess and is quite unbelievable how far it has gone from an outsiders point of view!! The only mistake I have made is listening to poor internet advice on ignoring Parking eye letters through the post when one phone call to Grosvenor 11 months ago would have sorted this!
Help! Thanks again:mad::D

enfield_freddy

read and digest , http://www.parking-prankster.com/ccj.html

waamo

Having paid the ccj you may face an uphill battle as in escence you have admitted you owe the money. Parking Eye may well oppose an application to set aside and get a refund.

In saying that Parking Eye have been known to not oppose a set aside application as long as they keep the money.

The_Deep

I am puzzled as to why you followed old advice, a quick google of Parking Eye would have warned you not to ignore them. I feel that you are suffering from a self-inflicted would here.


I would not throw good money after bad, but then, I am not a gambler.

bargepole

Clive81 wrote: »

...I also checked with Northampton Court and according to them they sent out court papers to my correct home address at the start of April. I just state that I do not recall getting these papers, although I am not disputing they were sent out.
... I plan to appeal to the courts to have this CCJ set aside and I believe that I have a strong case to be successful here...actually I believe that I can't lose in this situation.
...I do not recall receiving the court papers so did not have a chance to contest this argument at that stage.
... I understand I now have to fill in an N244 form and pay £155 for the privilege of appealing. ...

First of all, there is no 'appeal' involved. The time for appealing passed long ago when you foolishly ignored the original notices. Our advice on here has not been to ignore them for at least 2 years.

So what you are proposing to do is submit an application to have the Judgment set aside. In order for that to happen, you need to convince a Judge of two things - a) that you had a good reason for not responding to the original claim documents; and b) that you have a realistic prospect of defending it.

From what you've posted, you'll be struggling with a). Might be a waste of £155.

Clive81

From the early advice I am sensing that early thoughts are not to pursue this...

However, is the main pint being missed here... That I was a valid customer of the Casino therefore entitled to free parking!!!
Surely having this CCJ benefits nobody!!???

Clive81

Bargepole-
I did have a) a good reason to ignore the original documents This good reason being the large sign as you drive into the car park that says Free Parking for customers!!! Like I said before this CCJ benefits no one... It's doesn't warn creditors that I am a risk as all I did was use a car park a legitimate customer!!!

Come on guys cut me an angle here in which I can win this an have this CCJ set aside!??

salmosalaris

What is your aim ? To simply remove the CCJ from your file or fight the claim if your application to set aside is succesfull ?

Clive81

Thank you salmosalaris good question.

I accept this is a self inflicted wound that never should have got this far and is ridiculous in nature Now at this stage this is isn't about money or fighting my claim this is purely andn simply about removing this CCJ from my record.
I have an otherwise exemplary credit record and want to keep it that way....
Help my fight this...

waamo

In that case try contacting Parking Eye and ask if they would oppose an application if you weren't interested in a refund. Like I said earlier they just want the money and don't care if you have a ccj or not.

Make sure you get everything in writing. A phone call won't be worth the paper it's written on.

If Parking Eye agree and you are lucky you might (and it's a big might) manage to get a Judge to agree to it.

The_Deep

The problem you have is persuading the judge to grant a set aside because you will have extreme difficulty proving to him/her that you did not ignore court papers. Do you know how many letters the court sent to you?


The actual parking event claim you could win easily on signage, losses, contract, standing, genuine customer etc.