Gladstones County Court Defence Letter CPM Blackburn

clarity23

Hi there,

I’m writing this thread for advise as I'm absolutely pulling my hair out with this and may I thank people in advance for helping me with this, it is much appreciated that people find the time on things like this to give people advise.

What I’m ultimately wanting for advise on is what do I do at this stage and how easy is it to write a defence? Does it have to be professionally written for the judge to read or will he take into consideration that I’m not a solicitor etc? And just anything that anyone would think I would find useful in my defence.

I have to admit which I’m kicking myself about now, I’ve binned the majority of correspondence I’ve received from the various company’s as I thought it was just cowboys trying it on. Is there a way of me being able to request this correspondence? Will I even need it?

On the 17/10/2016 I was issued with a parking fine that is on private land. I received various DRP (debt recovery letters) which I will admit if this is right or wrong I was under the impression that you ignored things like this in order to never admit you were the driver of the vehicle and that these things are not an actual fine they are an invoice of what they believe you owe them.

Anyway I’ve received various letters from Gladstones solicitors making various bullying threats which again I thought was just these guys playing the numbers game of people paying vs people not paying.

I’ve now received the dreaded court order claim form from the county court business centre.

I’ve filled the relevant information in online which I’ve used an example from moneysaving expert and said I want to defend this. I’ve now got 10 days I beleive to get something together.

The low down

Basically there are three shops on this land, Tesco express, a small cash loans company and a restaurant. They are all neighbours together in this area. The entrance to the area is to the left of the shops and restaurant where there are two options when you come here, a carpark to the left as well as parking space bays right outside tesco and then there is space along both the other shop and restaurant to park your car in a single file order system ensuring enough space for other cars to able to get past.

This area (3 shops) have been various business throughout the years and people have parked here like this in harmony for over 10 years. So its just part of daily life in this area and has been for years.

Suddenly bargain booze closed and a restaurant was renovated in its place.

Before the restaurant was opening the owner had bright yellow grid marking painted around the perimeter of his restaurant. This looks pretty offensive but all the same quite obvious or what I thought was obvious of where he doesn’t want anybody to park. I personally thought fair enough, he doesn’t want people parking directly outside his property. On the yellow grid paint. The next thing I find is that I’ve had a photograph taken of the back of my car ( who is the owner of the restaurant who took this) showing that I have parked outside the yellow grid markings on the photograph. Annoying I don’t have this anymore, can I request this?

On investigation due to the extremely small writing on the signage that he has had put up this means any car outside an actual bay will be fined. So the yellow paint he has had done means absolutely nothing really? Its anyone parked outside an official bay? Its very misleading.

Anyway, this has happened to hundreds of people in the area I think possibly thousands. There is facebook threads etc of people saying all sorts about this land owner and what he’s doing and how misleading it is.
Whether or not this is meaningful in a defence, the restaurant isn’t trading anymore, I think he was open for maybe a year. He never had any customers in the restaurant, very dead kind of place. Its almost like he’s doing this just for an extra source of income. Many people have complained about other things he has done like being violent and abusive to people etc but I think this doesn’t have anything to do with my defence but again I thought Id say it anyway [FONT=&quot]😊[/FONT]

A poster on facebook has stated this - "In addition the signage on the car park was regarded as insufficient by the local council.
My local MP (Phil Riley) got back to me recently regarding this matter and I was informed "That after a lot of pressure from Council officers, CPM changed the signage at the site. I think we can take that as an admission of guilt and, if you haven't already appealed, you should do so referring to this change in signage".
CPM added additional signs to the car park on the 28/10/2016.
21 days after my ticket was issued"

I’m presuming I can use this in my defence with the date of my "fine" been before this date?
Im going to contact this lady on facebook and hopefully get some information from her.

Also Id like to add that I have very aggressive psoriatic arthritis in my feet which disables me from walking great distances. I however don’t own a blue badge or anything or claim benefits as Im able to work etc and at the age of 35 I find it difficult to accept so I dont class myself as this in society however I do have this condition and take biologic injections for this with regular visits to the hospital etc. Im thinking this wont hold up in court but thought Id mention it anyway.

The yellow markings accompanied with the signage that you clearly have to stand there and read for a long time surely is ridiculous and at the time there wasn’t sufficient signage anyway?

The fee in total that I’m being charged at the moment in court is £246. I’ve never had a breakdown of what this would actually be for?
I think I must have been there for 10 minutes at tesco express getting some quick essentials.
I don’t think I have anything else to add.

My defence currently looks like this:
1, That the signs where not visible as I entered the car park and the terms & conditions where so small that you could not see it as I left my vehicle. Also the local MP getting involved and CPM putting up better signs on the date after my fine date.

2,Its a free car park, and there was no genuine-pre estimate of loss for parking there, the landlord was not out of pocket, I was not blocking/preventing anyone else from using the car park

3,The parking charge of the original £60 or £100 if I don’t pay within 14 days, there was no contract between myself, the registered keeper and the parking company, so how can I agree to the terms and conditions of paying £60 in the first place?

4,How can the parking company decide to charge £60 if I was parked there for 10mins or 24 hours, the same charge apply so there was no consideration given on calculation a genuine pre-loss
5, I have an aggressive form of psoriatic arthritis?

Please any help would be massivley appreciated and apologies if I’ve waffled on a bit.
[FONT=&quot]Kindest Regards[/FONT]

muleskinner

I lost my original PCN and requested a copy from the PPC and they sent it to me, along with high-res copies of all the photos they had taken (again at my request). I'd imagine they'd do the same with other correspondence too. Probably best to say you never received it and want a copy of everything they claim to have sent.

Looks to me like you have a valid defence based on signage alone. I'd avoid the 'genuine-pre estimate of loss' argument as I don't believe that's likely to hold water post-Beavis. I think it's listed somewhere here as a defence argument to avoid.

Also look at landowner authority and whether the signage was 'forbidding'. Read the newbies threads which explain pretty much everything.

System

Point 1 in the defence is OK but lose the other 4.

Then go and read all the other defences. Helps if you look for UKCPM ones.

What is likely is that this is a self-ticketing operation. UKCPM/Gladstones haven't a clue so you need to get the paperwork off the DVLA and UKCPM so you can see what they have.

Check the Land Registry too. A lot of these self-ticketers are actually issuing tickets on land they do not own and if this is the case here, bang in a counterclaim for £250 naming UKCPM and the self-ticketer.

Coupon-mad

My defence currently looks like this:

Your defence needs to look more like all the others we have here. Read post #2 of the NEWBIES thread for examples, and also search the forum for 'UKCPM defence' (only read very recent ones).