Trethowans Court Claim - Help Appreciated

ftd83

Dear All,

I have a rather unusual parking case sprung upon me that I need your help with. Unfortunately this situation is not covered in the FAQ's/previous posts. I will try to briefly explain the case.

I worked at X hospital and had a staff parking pass (I have proof of payment from my wage slips). My usual car required repair for 4 days so I had a lease car from the garage. Got a ticket each day (August 2015) for not displaying a ticket, presumably because the reg number did not match the pass reg number even though I left a note aswell on the windscreen after the first one. Telephoned the general office at the time and they said they would sort it out.

I left Aintree to move to Aberdeen on Sept 1st (literally 1 week later) and never heard anything more so assumed it was sorted. Just received a whole bunch of mail from the guy who bought my old house in England with a nice N1 claim form from Trethowans! Fortuntely he sent it because he said it looked official, in amongst all the other junk mail from England was their threatening letters for payment (£240 for the 4 tickets).

Obvisouly it is now too late for POPLA appeals etc but I think I am on reasonable ground as I had paid to park each month and have proof. I genuinely think they were hoping to win this as a 'no contest' as obviously they never recieved any replies from me as all their mail was going to my old house. It seems the garage must have give Trethowans my details when the NTK went to them.I am going to send/call the chief executive at the hospital to demand this case is dropped (fortunately I am a Consultant Surgeon so may manage to reach someone with some power).

Just wondering if anyone has thoughts/advice on how I should respond in the N1 form? Rather unsually my defence is that I DO have a contract with the hospital(my monthly pass) and therefore by parking they have not suffered any damage as I would have parked there in my usual car with no fee anyway. This is besides the usual 'genuine estimated losses' argument. Interestingly I was paying £25 per month for parking and all day parking for visitors is £2 but each ticket was for £60. The parking eye v Beavis case does not seem applicable at all to my case so am not worried about that.

Hopefully a direct complain to the hospital will end this as postentially they have also breached their side of the contract for the 'service' I have paid for. If not I want to be prepared to deal with these Trethowan people.

Many thanks for any help.

pappa_golf

go to pepipoo , there is a long running fight against Aintree , this is not BPA/POPLa or IPC, there is another company involved doing the car parking , they are NOT BPA/IPC either , think this is the one http://www.pepipoo.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t102748-0.html

Johno100

Are you now resident in Scotland?

pappa_golf

that was now my next question for the OP , if so invite them to your local court <laugh>

ftd83

Yes, I am resident in Scotland since 1 week after their tickets. I was going to put in my defence section that I wish the hearing to be in Aberdeen. The courts up here I know are much more unfriendly to any PPN's as they require absolute proof of who was driving.

I have read the pepipoo thread before but this is again a case of a 'visitor' who has parked in unmarked bay so is relying on the no contract and unfair charge angle. I am actually relying on my contract as proof of payment!

pappa_golf

can a English company take you to court if you reside in Scotland and the offence was in England ?, I don,t think so, , await further comments from regulars

Coupon-mad

You can include in your defence that you are out of jurisdiction as your first point and ask that the claim is struck out.

Also that none of the pre-court paperwork was sent to the right address and the claimant has made no effort to serve it correctly bearing in mind you are/were known to them as an ex staff member. You do not live at the address where Aintree have been getting their solicitors to write to and Aintree know that very well (because surely they will know from HR records that you transferred or moved to Aberdeen, so even if they don't have your current address, they can have had no reasonable assumption that you still lived near to Aintree).

Another defence point will be that you contacted the general office at the time and they said they would sort it out. THIS IS WHY NEVER TO DO SUCH THINGS BY TELEPHONE! There is no type of parking ticket that can be dealt with ever, by phone.

Firstly you need to acknowledge the claim which needs to be done urgently (is the court claim dated less than 14 days ago?).

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING AT ALL IN THE DEFENCE SECTION WHEN ACKNOWLEDGING, NOT A SINGLE LETTER. NOTHING.

You have to acknowledge it to avoid the difficulty of getting a default judgment against you, so do that now. Are the court papers from Northamption (MCOL) in which case you can acknowledge them online? Or Salford, in which case you acknowledge urgently using the paperwork provided.

On the letter from Trethowans it will have an email address I think. I would include them in your complaint to the Chief Executive and I would not do this by phone. This is shocking and you must complain but you also have the trump card that you are out of jurisdiction as your address is in Scotland. Can you imagine how disabled and elderly patients feel? We know they are getting demands and court claims too. Utterly indefensible.

We are all going to open the popcorn and follow your thread - and I am sure pepipoo forum would be all over this too, so do start a thread there as well:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

Aintree would be off their rockers to try to take a consultant surgeon (who lives outside of English Court jurisdiction) to court over something they had agree to sort out. Do update and tell us when notorious Trethowans and Aintree back down - but make sure you cover your back with the acknowledgement of the claim urgently this weekend.

No defence yet - you MUST leave it completely blank - but that must then be submitted within 28 days of the court papers.

ftd83

Thanks a lot coupon-mad and papa-golf,

I had not actually thought of the jurisdiction issue! It does appear from the MCOL website that it can only be used if the person/company you want to claim against is in England/Wales.

I am very fortunate that the guy who bought my house clocked that this was important and phoned me to get my new address. Fortunately the claim is dated 21st March so I still have a bit of time to acknowledge. I was already planning to leave defence blank for now to buy some more time. I will acknowledge at the last possible moment just to annoy them and give me some extra days (4th April by my count) plus 14 days to write a defence.

I know it was a big mistake on my part to only phone them but at the time it was my last week working there, broken car and trying to move house to Scotland so a bit stressed.

Quite happy to make a song and dance about this with Aintree and cause them maximum embaressment - I can imagine their faces at the NHS exec board meeting when there is Consultant in the local papers being sued for going to work with a car park pass! Even if they drop my case I am intending to get the Liverpool Echo/Daily mail etc on the case. I have just found some FOI requests showing how much Aintree have spent on Trethowans - truly shocking as this is public money and should be used for patient care. There are multiple ways they could have got my new details as you say including from their own records/my resignation letter/GMC records/DVLA for my own car. It seems they have just taken the lease garages word of my last address and never bothered to look any further. Am just glad they wont get a free 'no contest' win.

pappa_golf

just to rub salt in there wombs , contact the DVLA and ask "who" accessed your info ,


the whole situation with hospitals hiring external companies to chase people stinks

Northlakes

I would like a opinion whether a NHS trust can take a member of staff to court over a parking matter within their grounds.
If anything it would be a disciplinary matter. Surely that person is a member of a body corporate.

Coupon-mad

True. If the OP posts on pepipoo we might see some opinion on that side of it.

This case needs to cause Aintree maximum embarrassment because there are loads of other staff members and patients and visitors getting the same 'treatment' from Aintree right now even though it is against the NHS parking principles issued by the Government:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

Could be one for the OP to take to the National papers if he wishes. It is that bad. And it would expose Aintree's little game to more people.