Gladstones letter before claim - no ticket

cleofierce

Hi All,

About 4 months ago i got a penalty charge for parking without a ticket displayed, this was in an SIP parking place in Manchester. It was late at night and the driver did not notice the signs for the pay and display machine because usually there is a person at the kiosk which you give the money to and since he wasn't there the driver assumed they wouldn't have to pay.

The £35 original fine was going to be paid but when logging onto the SIP website to pay it, it wasn't a secure website to enter your card details, which seemed like it was a scam/not a legit company. So all letters were ignored from then on.

Now Gladstones solicitors have sent me a letter before claim saying that i need to pay £160 within 14 days or they will start proceedings against me. A relative of mine sent a letter back on my behalf stating that without any real evidence such as photos, period duration etc we will not disclose who the driver of the vehicle is.

Gladstones then replied with another letter saying "We are not authorised to correspond with this letter, please provide authorisation by confirming your relationship to the unauthorised party along with a serviceable address. If we do not receive authorisation within 14 days a claim will be issued without further notice."

I'm wondering if i have a leg to stand on if i do go to court, i'm not sure which points i can defend myself with.
I don't know if it is best to either negotiate with them or just pay the £160 and avoid the possibility of paying more if i did lose the court case.

Any advice would be much appreciated as i have never dealt with anything like this before! Many thanks

Coupon-mad

Now Gladstones solicitors have sent me a letter before claim saying that i need to pay £160 within 14 days or they will start proceedings against me. A relative of mine sent a letter back on my behalf stating that without any real evidence such as photos, period duration etc we will not disclose who the driver of the vehicle is.

Gladstones then replied with another letter saying "We are not authorised to correspond with this letter, please provide authorisation by confirming your relationship to the unauthorised party along with a serviceable address. If we do not receive authorisation within 14 days a claim will be issued without further notice."

Why did you let someone else reply? This makes no sense whatsoever, why does anyone do that?

Simply send back a reply in YOUR name as the keeper of the car, assuming you are the person who got the LBCCC. Tell them their LBCCC doesn't meet the current Civil Procedure rules and that you require all their evidence and photos and a copy of the signage, and a breakdown of how the ludicrous sum of £160 has been reached.

I'm wondering if i have a leg to stand on if i do go to court, i'm not sure which points i can defend myself with.

As per all the zillions of other Gladstones threads; we win 99% of the time. Read the NEWBIES thread post #2 about replying to an LBCCC and get a proper response sent to them, in your name, on Monday.

I don't know if it is best to either negotiate with them or just pay the £160 and avoid the possibility of paying more if i did lose the court case.

No. If you read other Gladstones threads you will see everyone here fights and defends and there is no possibility of paying a huge amount more, so why would you offer any amount.

You need to read more Gladstones threads. Two cases were won in court again yesterday after coaching by this forum. Everyone has a leg to stand on but stop letting other people reply!

cleofierce

I was away at the time so couldn't send it before the deadline but yeah i agree it should have been written in my name as the registered keeper. Thanks for your help i will compose a letter to send to them now and include all the points you've made. Hope it works.