CEL Whacked for £900 in DPA Breach Counterclaim

bargepole

D6GM2199 CEL v Mr B, Bury County Court, before DJ Osborne

CEL had issued a Claim for a single ticket, inflated to over £300 thanks to creative assistance from ZZPS and Wright Hassall.

The Defendant had filed a defence, with assistance from Barry Beavis, and had also filed a counterclaim for £500 for distress caused by CEL's breach of the DPA. Mr Beavis also left home at the crack of dawn today, to assist as a Lay Rep.

In Barry's own words:

A discontinuance was served and filed by CEL on 5th May. Which took care of their claim. But Mr B's counterclaim was still live

Bury Court will close on 9th June. All criminal cases have already been moved and there was only one court open with one judge who had three cases listed for today.

CEL didn't show up,

We went in and I got a sense that things weren't going to go well when we were greeted with a very gruff "Well?" From DJ Osborne I explained we were attending court as the counterclaim submitted was still active, even though the claimant company had discontinued their claim and even though they had failed to show up.

DJ Osborne subjected me to ten minutes of hell. He wanted to know why I hadn't filed a witness statement detailing the distress caused. We were claiming £500 for distress so where were the details?

He wanted to know why we'd failed to comply with the courts Directions requesting all paperwork and witness statements to be submitted no later than 14 days before the hearing. DJ Osborne felt had we submitted the paperwork correctly then CEL may have acted differently today. It was quite uncomfortable

I tried to explain the distress caused by the barrage of threatening letters. The phone calls. The solicitors letters. "Well then you should have put it in a statement and sent it to the court shouldn't you". "Well sir, Mr B is here now and he can be a witness now".

I thought he was going to explode! "That's not the point!! You've failed to follow directions of the court......"

I tried again, pointing to the Particulars of Claim and the letters from Wright Hassall and CCJ's they said Mr B will get. He told me to stop giving evidence.

Oh well - he said - as we have two hours allocated, take the stand please Mr B

Fifteen minutes of questioning in which the DJ lead Mr B to telling him about the distress suffered (acting quite differently and giving plenty of opportunity to Mr B to tell him how his missus kept crying with worry).

He then said yes well it seems £500 is not unreasonable.

He accepted the argument.
He accepted the tort of damages
He agreed £500 not unreasonable
He said he was disappointed in the claimant bringing an unfounded case, and in WH a respectable law firm.

Costs of £405 as asked added for unreasonable behaviour, all to be paid in 14 days

DPA breach is a real thing, people

waamo

I've got to suffer the delights of driving past Heathrow this evening. When I'm cursing the traffic and getting steamed up I will think back to this thread and be back in a happy place.

System

Did Barry batter them? Or stitched up like a kipper

Has to be above the call of duty for Barry to make that trip for the cause.

Hat off to him.

Lamilad

Well this has made my week, think I may have a beer with lunch.

Will we be getting a transcript from this case? Could be very useful.

Big well done to the defendant and BB.

Umkomaas

Good win, but will that CEL cheque turn up? Will they resort to some smoke and mirror manoeuvre using their multitude of associated companies? Will await news with interest.

The result will of course serve up a bit of jolt to PPC world and maybe they won't be so blase (why won't this site allow an e with an acute accent - crazy?) in robo claiming in future?

DoaM

The value of the judgment means the counter-claimant can go straight to HCEO for enforcement.

peter_the_piper

bargepole wrote: »

D6GM2199 CEL v Mr B, Bury County Court, before DJ Osborne

CEL had issued a Claim for a single ticket, inflated to over £300 thanks to creative assistance from ZZPS and Wright Hassall.

The Defendant had filed a defence, with assistance from Barry Beavis, and had also filed a counterclaim for £500 for distress caused by CEL's breach of the DPA. Mr Beavis also left home at the crack of dawn today, to assist as a Lay Rep.

In Barry's own words:

A discontinuance was served and filed by CEL on 5th May. Which took care of their claim. But Mr B's counterclaim was still live

Bury Court will close on 9th June. All criminal cases have already been moved and there was only one court open with one judge who had three cases listed for today.

CEL didn't show up,

We went in and I got a sense that things weren't going to go well when we were greeted with a very gruff "Well?" From DJ Osborne I explained we were attending court as the counterclaim submitted was still active, even though the claimant company had discontinued their claim and even though they had failed to show up.

DJ Osborne subjected me to ten minutes of hell. He wanted to know why I hadn't filed a witness statement detailing the distress caused. We were claiming £500 for distress so where were the details?

He wanted to know why we'd failed to comply with the courts Directions requesting all paperwork and witness statements to be submitted no later than 14 days before the hearing. DJ Osborne felt had we submitted the paperwork correctly then CEL may have acted differently today. It was quite uncomfortable

I tried to explain the distress caused by the barrage of threatening letters. The phone calls. The solicitors letters. "Well then you should have put it in a statement and sent it to the court shouldn't you". "Well sir, Mr B is here now and he can be a witness now".

I thought he was going to explode! "That's not the point!! You've failed to follow directions of the court......"

I tried again, pointing to the Particulars of Claim and the letters from Wright Hassall and CCJ's they said Mr B will get. He told me to stop giving evidence.

Oh well - he said - as we have two hours allocated, take the stand please Mr B

Fifteen minutes of questioning in which the DJ lead Mr B to telling him about the distress suffered (acting quite differently and giving plenty of opportunity to Mr B to tell him how his missus kept crying with worry).

He then said yes well it seems £500 is not unreasonable.

He accepted the argument.
He accepted the tort of damages
He agreed £500 not unreasonable
He said he was disappointed in the claimant bringing an unfounded case, and in WH a respectable law firm.

Costs of £405 as asked added for unreasonable behaviour, all to be paid in 14 days

DPA breach is a real thing, people

Were there 2 different DJ's as there certainly seems to be.:rotfl:

beamerguy

Delightful read.

A warning to the PPC's not to try and screw people.
This could happen to any PPC, anytime

The judge was not impressed by Wright Hassall ??
He would be less impressed by the stupidity of WH if only he
knew half the story about them.

Before any PPC starts court action, they need to now look very carefully to see if they may be subject to a DPA breach. Rest assured that this forum will

BWLegal, SCSLaw, Gladstones and Wright Hassall, the main 4 who
play with the scammers industry should now take heed

This is real, this is happening, and a special message to CEL

"WAKE UP" :eek:

FlyingDonkeys

What was the DPA breach?

beamerguy

FlyingDonkeys wrote: »

What was the DPA breach?

In a nutshell, CEL should never have accessed the data in the first place and being the bad boys they are ... they discontinued:rotfl:

Defendants case was STILL active against CEL, THEY IGNORED and were hit with £900 to pay
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/motorist-awarded-900-for-data.html

Next step for CEL is PAY UP or the bailiffs will call

Vindictive parking company using very bad solicitors, doomed to fail, both being greedy and not fit for purpose

The_Deep

Someone should bring this to the attention of the SRA. not me as all I get from them is whitewash.