SCS Law letter received regarding outstanding fines. Please help!

[Deleted User]

LOL - LOC123 beat me to it with her reply!

Loadsofchildren123

It may therefore be that (a) their client has been incorrectly/inappropriately advised or (b) that their correspondence is intended to mislead.


This is a good line of Jonersh's to include in your response.


Hansard (parliamentary records) do show that the PPCs wanted to include in POFA an obligation to name the driver and parliament obviously deliberately didn't - this is contained in previous threads I've read. I can't remember the name of the MP who specifically raised in in the debate of the Bill at draft stage, but it is out there on more than one thread. Coupon-Mad will probably know!

Doodakoff

Thank you all for your help thus far. I am at work at the moment and viewing this on my phone. I can see a lot of research is going to be needed on my end so I will read up on your replies and make sure I understand what I'm writing when I get back home.

Once again, I can't thank you all enough for the time and effort you put into your replies. I shall reply later and also add the original letter received that states it's a letter before claim.

System

An additional letter to the SCS's Head of Compliance on this plus the offer to have the matter referred to the SRA depending on the reply

Head of Compliance, Len Crowder by emailing info@scs-law.co.uk or ringing 0207 090 1599.

Doodakoff

Hi all,

First, apologies for bumping this thread up. I had thought the issue over with Coupon-mad's fantastic letter, however we received a reply. I created a new thread, but have since spent the days since researching and collating all I have. I now know I shouldn't have created that thread, so apologies for all who replied.

I shall post the thread here for reference but shall not post / bump it up again. - thank you to everyone that replied, I shall still use what you gave me to formulate a response.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5728436

Okay, where I am at - I am going to place all my cards on the table. I have copies of each letter received saved onto this computer, so if need be, I can post them up. For the time being, I shall post up relevant sections to support my narrative of events.

Back in April 2017, my partner received a letter from SCS Law, stating she owed over £3000 in unpaid parking tickets. This letter was not compliant with many things. They failed to follow the Practice Direction, failed to provide evidence and the letter clearly stated they did not consider this matter suitable for ADR. There are also 4 tickets in this letter that are for the same date and no explanation is offered. (See below)


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We replied with coupon-mads response and then received a further letter in September that was literally a copy and paste replica of the first letter, only this one had further tickets documented in it. There was no indication that they had received any response from us. At this moment in time, I believe my partner has over 30 outstanding tickets, in the region of £7000, however, some are repeated and no explanation is offered. It is incredibly confusing.

My partner then received the following letter in response to the one helped by coupon-mad.




This was then accompanied with;

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(I have edited out the location in red. They edited out information in black.)

The letter also had old photo's of the car park and signage - no date or time attached.
There was no plan of the car park.
Also included (and what I find most disgusting, which I shall get onto soon) was copies of *some* of the tickets. These included the original ticket, the final reminder, pictures of the car entering and leaving and then an enlarged photo of the VRM, although some were literally just an enlarged photo, no ticket included. These were replicated 3 times, creating the illusion that there was far more information contained in this overall package of letters, when in fact it was the same ticket replicated over and over.

At this moment in time, SCS have not provided me with all information/evidence requested in the letter I sent. I am going to go through the tickets that they have sent with a fine tooth comb to see if they display all the information they should. I cannot contact these people in relation to an ADR without the proper evidence.. which they seem reluctant to provide.

I am also going to reply to the above letter using the helpful replies from the thread I created.

Now onto the "cards on the table" aspect - and why I have been considering paying off this fine just to get it out of the way.

Before my partner received these fines, she was diagnosed with chronic depression. She had kept it to herself for a time but, after she started to display certain signs, she eventually confided in me her thoughts/feelings and that she had previous thoughts of ways to end her life. She was diagnosed and placed on medication. There were days where her routine was work sleep work sleep. She did not talk to anyone (we did not live together at the time), she literally got home and lay in bed.

My thought pattern in relation to paying this and putting it behind us is purely for her and her alone. The money did not matter, I was just concerned for her welfare. After a while, she was definitely improving... and then received these letters. She has since spiralled down. The fact that they sent a massive bulk of documents, with the majority just replicas, is disgusting and comes across as pure scare tactics / harassment - which is why I am now putting all of my effort into fighting this.

I shall leave this post here for the time being and begin to draft my response. Apologies for the length. Just needed to get some things off my chest. Thanks for reading.

Umkomaas

The Landowner Authority is printed on Britannia notepaper, signed with a squiggle and no position shown (could have been the tea lady).

Also its date of 26th April 2017 is certainly after the tickets (shown above) listed for 2nd April 2017 - how does the date relate to all other tickets? I’d certainly be arguing that prior to 26/4, Britannia had no Landowner Authority.

EDIT - just read the final para of the Brit/Landowner letter - ignore above.

In regard to your 2 threads, why not PM Crabman or soolin - Board Guides - and ask them to merge the threads, it will make it much easier for regulars to go back over the full story - important, given the scale of things.

Loadsofchildren123

Why have they blacked out the landowner's identity? this is not confidential in any manner - it is in fact public record at Land Registry. So insist on an unredacted copy.


You need to write back to complain about the missing information with a list of what they supplied and what they didn't in relation to each ticket.


Is this a normal car park, or residential? Permits or P&D, or a free period of parking limited to x hours?


What is your defence going to be? inadequate signage? driver did comply? driver not obliged to comply as residential?

Loadsofchildren123

If there is any DPA breach then your partner should get damages because she can prove that this has caused her distress.

Doodakoff

Thank you for your replies. Have emailed the board admins to see if I can get the threads merged. I'm currently drafting my response so that would be helpful

It is a normal car park for a number of different shops and a supermarket. It has a free period of parking for 3 hours, not to return for another 3 hours. There is another operating car park next to it. It is separated by a raised curb. I don't think you can access one car park from the other. I believe you have to exit one to enter the other. I'm returning to the location later today to confirm this.

In relation to defence - I'm still working on that (and struggling). I've returned to the car park since and have noted that there appears to be more signs. They have also changed the signs allowing for different restrictions on different days.
They have also supplied enlarged photos of the car being drive via ANPR cameras situated at the entrance of the car park. Although the images are slightly blurred, you can see the face in 2 of the them. It may be that they already have images of the drivers face.

Would it be helpful for me to post up the signs that were in place during the time of the issued tickets?

Doodakoff

My draft so far, it's a work in progress and shall be edited as I go along. I've still got around 6-7 days to complete this and send it off... although I note that they don't bother to reply within the 14 day period.

I may need help re-wording certain parts and I'm currently working out how to word the proof of driver section. I have used parts of coupon-mads letter as I feel they may be relevant. Also, apologies if I have misinterpreted / worded an incorrect piece of protocol, I'm taking in so much information and my notes are ever increasing!

Again, thank you all so much for your help. Me and my partner greatly appreciate it.

Edited - Final draft for letter below