Responding to a County Court Claim

Rob9922

Hi,

I have just received a County court claim for a parking ticket received back in October 2015 from Excel Parking. Basically its one of those ticket machines you have to input your license plate before you buy the ticket. I paid for a ticket but was daydreaming at the time and put in the licence plate of my old car, not the car i was driving that day.

A few weeks later i get the ticket in the post, i responded explaining i entered the reg of my old car and still had the actual parking ticket so scanned it and sent it them. They came back to me and asked for proof that i used to own the car of the reg i had mistakenly entered, again i had proof of this so sent it them. They accepted i was telling the truth but still wanted me to pay a fee (although it was less than the original £100 fine), i refused to pay.

I while later I get another letter requesting the full fee again, so i went down the appeals route they outline (which i later learned is a bit of a kangaroo court) and lost. The solicitors letters then followed and now a CCC, total amount with fees is up to £240 now.

So my question is, is it worth putting up a defense, would i be likely to win and also if i do put up a defense and lose will there be large additional fees to pay? In my eyes i paid for i ticket, displayed it and left well within the time limit and just made an honest mistake, any advise much appreciated, thanks.

beamerguy

Rob9922 wrote: »

Hi,

I have just received a County court claim for a parking ticket received back in October 2015 from Excel Parking. Basically its one of those ticket machines you have to input your license plate before you buy the ticket. I paid for a ticket but was daydreaming at the time and put in the licence plate of my old car, not the car i was driving that day.

A few weeks later i get the ticket in the post, i responded explaining i entered the reg of my old car and still had the actual parking ticket so scanned it and sent it them. They came back to me and asked for proof that i used to own the car of the reg i had mistakenly entered, again i had proof of this so sent it them. They accepted i was telling the truth but still wanted me to pay a fee (although it was less than the original £100 fine), i refused to pay.

I while later I get another letter requesting the full fee again, so i went down the appeals route they outline (which i later learned is a bit of a kangaroo court) and lost. The solicitors letters then followed and now a CCC, total amount with fees is up to £240 now.

So my question is, is it worth putting up a defense, would i be likely to win and also if i do put up a defense and lose will there be large additional fees to pay? In my eyes i paid for i ticket, displayed it and left well within the time limit and just made an honest mistake, any advise much appreciated, thanks.

First you need to acknowledge the claim

You have used the IPC/IAS scam appeals service run by the ever incompetent Gladstones solicitors ....

Good you kept the machine ticket and indeed you paid albiet a simple error.
Excel are only interested in your money but they did accept your reason...... I would suspect that they never offered to refund for the ticket price of a car that was never there ? ... of course not

Regardless of the reg number, you paid to park and you have proof.

The courts are getting sick to death of the feeble attempts of Excel to extort money and indeed the legals they use.
So, which solicitor ?? BWLegal or Gladstones maybe

Rob9922

Thanks for the advice.

The solicitors they're using are bwlegal.

Coupon-mad

First you need to acknowledge the claim

See the NEWBIES thread post #2 for what to do, how to do it and when!

So my question is, is it worth putting up a defense, would i be likely to win and also if i do put up a defense and lose will there be large additional fees to pay?

No huge fees in small claims - even if you lose you'd likely pay less than the inflated claim because the add-ons are not justified or part of any contract agreed. Almost everyone here wins - I can only recall one loss v BW Legal reported in months, loads of wins including Lamilad x 2 (who posts here to help). Read other BW Legal Excel defence threads by searching the forum for those words.

Rob9922

Hi Coupon Mad, I notice in the Lamilad case they did not admit to being the driver, in my case I've admitted to this and on the parking sign at the car park it does actually mention inputting an incorrect registration number can lead to receiving a ticket.

I know i'm not in the wrong here as i bought a ticket but if it goes to court and they only look at the black and white of it then surly they would find me to be in the wrong as i didn't put the right reg number in. Wondered what your thoughts were on this as you seem to have given a lot of good advice out on the topic.

Coupon-mad

and on the parking sign at the car park it does actually mention inputting an incorrect registration number can lead to receiving a ticket.

In tiny writing, along with the 'hidden in small print' £100 parking charge, shown much less obviously than the large font tariffs to draw you in.

Seeing as they are already excitedly chasing £240, and even if you lost a small claim (here we win 99% even when drivers are admitted) your'd only pay about £175, it's a no brainer to fight! For the principle of not sponsoring ex-clampers, the unfairness of a tariff being shown to have been paid not being considered 'enough' and the high chance of beating them. BW Legal's evidence is dire.