Entered Wrong reg on App. messed up my appeal now.

Jamesrb

Think I might have sorted it. Please check the drop box link above, should all be in there. The only other photos are ones of letters, the ticketed car etc.

Many thanks

KeithP

Remove that Dropbox link. You full name is instantly viewable.

Sign up to Dropbox using an anonymous username.

KeithP

Having seen your full name, you would be wise to get your forum username changed to something very much more anonymous.

To help with that, you might like to read this short extract from The MSE Forum Guide - Frequently Asked Questions & Rules:

Q. How can I change my username?

A. In most circumstances, this is not permitted.

The only reason we will change your username is if it puts your privacy at risk. This usually means you've inadvertently registered using your name, email address or something that gives away your identity within your username.

If you fall into this category, email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com and request that it is changed, giving three alternative usernames in order of preference.

Jamesrb

Removed the link. Just had another go at the witness statement and tried to paste it in and now my IP address at work has been banned so can only work off mobile. So frustrating. Got to get this in for Sunday at the latest
What’s the issue with anyone knowing my full name? I’m sure if someone from BW Legal is looking at the thread they will know exactly who I am anyway wouldn’t they?

KeithP

In the first few lines of the first post in the NEWBIES thread you will find this:

DO NOT USE YOUR OWN REAL NAME AS YOUR USERNAME!! TAKE HEED - READ THIS HELPFUL POST FROM CATFUNT:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5532696

Umkomaas

Just had another go at the witness statement and tried to paste it in and now my IP address at work has been banned so can only work off mobile. So frustrating.

Are you copying and pasting directly from Word? Read this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5706338/please-dont-copy-and-paste-from-word-outlook

Coupon-mad

Luckily the OP had already pasted his Witness Statement in a pm to me, so here is the next draft for comments:

I have had another go at the witness statement ;


_____________________

WITNESS STATEMENT
_____________________

1. I am x of x , the defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. 2 On x I visited Plymouth Charles Cross Car Park and parked the vehicle I was driving xxxx at Plymouth Charles Cross.

3. I arrived at the car park with family members on Friday xx/07/17 at approximately 23:00 after a 5.5 hour drive from Yorkshire. We were booked to stay for 2 nights at the Jurys Inn, Plymouth as we were attending a family friend’s military wedding on the Saturday xx/07/17.

4. I had travelled to Plymouth with my family in my wife’s Nissan Juke, Reg x which I am insured to drive also. On arrival at the car park we went straight to the hotel as their website offered a discount overnight rate at the car park. We checked into the hotel, gave them my wife’s car registration and paid £8 to them for the car park which covered us from 23:00 x/07/17 until 11:00 x/07/17. I have attached my hotel invoice to show this payment and proof of hotel booking. The next morning I had my alarm on my phone set for 11:00am as a reminder to sort the car park and the next morning I used the Pay By Phone mobile phone app along with the location code 79070 to pay £11.30p to cover me for 24 hours 11:00 x/07/17 until 11:00 x/07/17. At 11:00 on the x/07/17 when I went to the car after check out from the hotel I found the Parking Charge Notice attached to my car window. It then became apparent when I investigated further that the app had selected my own car reg x for the parking session and not my wifes car.

5. When i first used the Pay By Phone Mobile Phone App in 2015 it asked for my car registration. I had only used it one other time since 2015.

6. As shown in the screen shot pictures of the app that I have provided; When the app is accessed it asks for a location code to allow you to confirm the location of where you are parking, the next step the app asks you to enter the length of stay, which immediately draws your attention away from the fact that it had carried forward my own cars registration x and it doesn’t ask you to specifically enter the registration of the vehicle being parked, after that you enter the card for payment, confirm and the transaction is completed.

7. The pay by phone app, as shown in the photo provided, has had several versions and is in version 4.4.0. at present. The process that the claimant is showing you is from 2019 so cant be proven that this was the exact way that the app worked 2 years ago when I last used it but even now it still automatically pulls forward the users car registration without getting them to manually enter it.

8. The screen shots of the app provided by the claimant, in their witness statement, is the process from when the app is first used, it does not ask you to enter the registration each time you use it after the initial set up. I did this process in 2015 so the app should not store and presume old data for over 2 years and several versions later to prevent this from happening.

9. The claimant states that I admitted to entering the wrong registration on the app in my letter I sent them explaining the problem to them. I did not state that I entered the wrong reg, I stated that I had paid for the parking for the wrong car, this is not admitting fault, it is stating fact as it was the fault of the app that allowed this to happen.

10. The claimant has shown that they were aware I had made the required payment but accept it was to the wrong car which is why they reduced the fine to £20 to cover their admin charges. They were clearly happy to accept £20, which was not couched as a 'without prejudice' offer so would have been full and final settlement then, and the same sum surely applies now. £20 more than covers any costs, and thus the claimant has no legitimate interest or commercial justification in punishing a known paying patron for the payment that they know was simply allocated to the wrong car.

11. The Claimant has never offered to refund the charges I paid for a car that wasn’t in their car park and I have never claimed for a refund for the incorrect payment, we both accepted that this payment had been made for my parking session in question.

12. The POPLA appeal process was ongoing and took longer than the 14 days that the reduced offer of £20 was available before it rose back up 5 fold to an unrealistic reflection of actual costs incurred.

13. The fact I made reasonable endeavors and cannot be penalised under UK contract law is also a circumstance supported by trite law. Authority for this is the case of Jolley v Carmel Ltd [2000] 2 EGLR 154, where it was held that a party who makes reasonable endeavors to comply with contractual terms, should not be penalised for breach when unable to fully comply with the terms.

14. Even if the Court believes a contract potentially existed, the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 applies. It states at 1.(1) ''money due but not paid before frustration ceases to be payable'' and “a contract may be discharged on the ground of frustration. The unforeseeable frustration brings a contract to an end forthwith and automatically”

15. Due to frustration of contract, where matters were outside my control due to storage of old data on the app (the Claimant has adduced no evidence of fault on my part) the contract was never properly or fairly made.

16. In addition to the original parking charge, believed to be £100, for which liability is denied, the Claimants have artificially inflated the value of the Claim by adding purported ‘Solicitor’s Costs’ of £60 which I submit have not actually been incurred by the Claimant.

17. Whilst £60 may be recoverable in an instance where a claimant has used a legal firm to prepare a claim, Brittania have not expended such a sum on my case. They employ salaried in-house Solicitors and file hundreds of similar robo-claims per week, not incurring any legal cost per case. I put the Claimant to strict proof to the contrary because xxxx (contact for my case) cannot possibly be believed to be paid in the millions for his services.

18. The added 'legal' cost is an artificially invented figure (carefully avoided in the Beavis case where only £85 was pursued, presumably to avoid just such scrutiny). This is a cynical attempt to circumvent the Small Claims costs rules using double recovery.

19. Claimant states ‘The terms and conditions which the Defendant accepted upon entering the Car Park, are clear and unambiguous. The terms make it clear that the Defendant should have purchased a valid Pay and Display Ticket ('PDT'), detailing his full and accurate Vehicle Registration Mark ('VRM')’.

20. The photographs of the signage at the car park provided by the claimant are dated 2019, there are no photos provided proving there was any signage present in 2017 when I got the ticket and that there was any information on the sigs. I had asked on previous occasions for photographs to be supplied of the signage at the car park and no photographs were provided to me until these ones nearly 2 years later.

21. The only condition currently that is clearly visible on the claimants signage photos states that ‘there is no requirement to display a ticket once payment has been made’ yet on their Parking Charge Notice it states that my contravention was for ‘failing to display a valid P&D ticket or permit’ therefore this contradicts the terms on the signage showing that these signs were not present when I parked there in 2017.

22. As the Photos provided by the claimant clearly prove, the small print on the signage at the location, even now, showing the terms and conditions is not clearly visible so should not be relied upon when a contract is being formed to park at the location.

23. The Court is invited to dismiss the Claim, and to allow such Defendant’s costs as are permissible under Civil Procedure Rule 27.14.

#17 needs a tweak.

It's Britannia, not 'Brittania' and they don't use IN HOUSE solicitors.

Jamesrb

Ah, thank you coupon-mad for sharing, massively appreciated. I pasted it to you from notepad and then made the mistake of cutting and pasting from the PM I was sending into the thread which caused it to block my IP.
So one other thing has come to light which I will be adding, I actually have a pay and display ticket from the day I got the PCN because we stayed for a bit longer after I realised I’d messed up, so paid separately for a p&d ticket. The ticket shows that there is no registration required when I was parking there, the signs have definitely been added since my ticket so will be arguing that they are irrelavent in their defence.
Any tweaks or help greatly appreciated. I need to submit this ideally in the early hours of the morning as t will be my last chance of internet access on a PC, so help with correctly numbering paragraphs would be a huge help.

Thank you.

Coupon-mad

Looks good, and do add your point about the PD ticket, proving the signs are not correct.

What evidence are you including? Everything you say needs evidence attached.

However you won't be submitting it by email/on MCOL, you have to submit a file to the court that you want the Judge to read easily and see all your evidence. We suggest using a ring binder, with all your evidence numbered, and all ages numbered and well organised, and a contents page and a draft costs schedule.

You can email the version to the Claimant, but don't inflict an email on the local court.

Jamesrb

I have the screen shot of the App to show it is on version 4, I have the screen shots of the app that show how the process and how it pulls the registration forward, hotel receipt to prove I parked my wife’s car the day before, p&d ticket to prove it didn’t need you to enter the reg when I parked there so the signs must be different now. I don’t suppose I need photos of the signs do I that prove the writing is so small in the terms and conditions, I just refer to theirs don’t I? Or shall I re attach the ones they sent to me?
That’s about it I think. Can’t think if there is anything else I will need is there?