Help Please! Parking Fine County Court Pack

Redx

they will when you post it

pandorapandora

Hi Redx - I've been at work and though I had access to my email with their court bundle, I didn't have access to the first draft of my own statement. Please see below.

Thanks

DRAFT 1

1. The facts in this statement come from my personal knowledge. Where they are not within my own knowledge, they are true to the best of my information and belief

2. I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all and this is my Witness Statement in support of my defence as already filed.

3. I assert that I am the registered keeper of the vehicle in question in this case. I was the driver and on XX/XX/XXXX, parked on land on XXXXX, which is private land on which the Claimant operates, and purchased a Pay and Display ticket in cash from a machine on site, valid XX:XX to XX:XX (as per the photograph provided in evidence by the Claimant).

4. At XXXX I called the Claimant!!!8217;s premium-rate telephone number within plenty of time of the ticket expiry (see document XX from XX, my then mobile telephone network provider, evidencing the call time, number called and call length and document XX from Google, evidencing that the telephone number on my evidence from XX is the telephone number of the Claimant) to seek advice and instruction on if I could extend my parking ticket remotely or if I needed to head back to the car before the expiry time. The Claimants representative assured me that I could top-up; my existing ticket. I provided my location to the representative as !!!8216;their car park between XX Street and XX Street, as the main entrance with large signage, A-boards and arrows is on XX Street (see document XX from Google Maps and the photographic evidence provided by the Claimant), but there is another entrance on XX street where the word IN; is written on the wall in paint (see document XX from Google Maps and from the Claimant).

5. The Claimants telephone representative asked me to read out my debit card number in order to make payment. As I was in a very busy public location in Manchester City Centre and concerned about possible identity theft, I asked if there was an alternative payment method, and was given a five-digit location code - which I double checked with the representative, along with instruction on how to make payment via entering this code and my bank details on their website.

6. On accessing the payment website advised by the Claimant, I was prompted that my email address was registered already for online payment and I needed to enter my password. I had no idea what this password was, and requested a password reset SMS text message, which I received at XX (see document XX), still before the expiry of my parking. I then used the website link from the SMS to access the Claimants provided website and complete my payment as instructed.

7. On returning to my car within my extra hour, I found a yellow plastic folder stuck to my windscreen containing a Charge Notice. I presumed at the time that the Claimant had seen my windscreen expiry time of 14:08 and issued this without cross-checking my payment on their online system, and thought nothing of it. I was very busy in my new job at the time and with Christmas the following week I forgot all about it until I received a letter from the Claimant dated XX asking for payment of a fine. I responded via email (see document XXX) explaining that I made full payment for the time parked on their land, firstly via Pay & Display and subsequently online as instructed by their Company representative via telephone. On XX I received another letter from the Claimant with no reference to my earlier response, and with increased fines and urgency. I telephoned them from work to ask why they had sent another letter when I had already responded to their previous, and was advised to forward this email to them again, which I did (see email XX). I received no response from the Claimant again and the next contract was from the Claimants solicitors, Gladstones, which I acknowledged in writing (see document XX) along with documentation backing my account. I was then advised that though they could see I had made a payment, it was to the wrong party rather than their Client and court proceedings were then commenced.

I believe the facts stated in this Defence Statement are true.

pandorapandora

Sorry I have no idea why my post above has !!!8217 in it throughout; that wasn't in my draft or the preview prior to posting!

Redx

its a forum issue, either caused by SMART PUNCTUATION on an apple device, or adding some characters like an apostrophe or some other similar character or characters (like the above seems to be)

you may need to edit accordingly, or not use an apple device, or turn off SMART PUNCTUATION, unless MSE ADMINS ever fix this issue

pandorapandora

Thanks Redx - I've edited and removed that gubbins and the apostrophes and it's fine (I'm not on an Apple). Hopefully Loadsofchildren or someone can help with next steps of the above and it's now a bit more readable

Coupon-mad

I believe the facts stated in this Defence Statement are true.

It's a Witness Statement! Should be:

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

If your court is Manchester, with those facts and evidence, you should have no trouble winning this, and should maybe just break up that final big paragraph into about 3 more!

And because the entire claim is baseless and vexatious and you can prove you paid, and prove you told them before they started the claim, go for a very hefty costs schedule (file it with the court and the other side, 3 or 4 days before the hearing).

By hefty, I mean like the one used by sassi:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5662425

it asks for increased 'punitive' costs on the indemnity basis, due to the claim being wholly unreasonable and vexatious from start to finish.

As this is Manchester (I hope) with good Judges, I would really push the costs to a high ceiling, well over £500. If you don't ask, you don't get!

Be robust and practise explaining why their conduct has been ''wholly unreasonable'' from start (their contractor/employee being negligent with the location code) to finish (pursuing you under these circumstances!).

pandorapandora

Coupon Mad thank you so much, you've given me much more confidence! Oh yes I did put 'Defence', thank you! I will split that final paragraph up as suggested.

Do I need to respond in my witness statement to the points in their witness statement? They are talking about signage ('the contract'), Parking Eye vs. Beavis case, VCS v HM Revenue & Customs case, their charges not being excessive and have struck out points 6,7,8 and 9 of my defence as being irrelevant to my case. Do I need to respond to these? Will they start spouting all of this case stuff at me in court?

Do I need to relate my Witness Statement back to the sections in my Defence Statement about particulars of claim' etc, or is this Statement just for me to state the facts that happened on the day?

And yes it is Manchester so I hope that's a good sign! I have not claimed any costs/counter claimed - I will go through the link you provided after work and write something up.

Last question (sorry) - what can I expect of a Small Claims Court (just as I'm a bit scared!) - is it a big court room with a judge?

Thanks so much to everyone for all help so far. It's so ridiculous how I have got so stressed about all of this for over a year, all for a simple admin error on their part!

nosferatu1001

At the END of your WS state something like...
I also request that the court strikes the claimants WS as it is clearly not a series of facts known to the author, but an attempt by the C solicitors to introduce new arguments for their claim not present in their initial pleadings. In particular ....

The following statements madeby the claimant are also denied .... because...

They havent struck out your defence, only the court does that. Theyre asking the court to strike it.

WS is a sert of FACTS not arguments. THEIR WS is a set of arguments, not facts (or very few!)

Just an office, nothing scary.

Coupon-mad

I have not claimed any costs/counter claimed

Costs are not a 'counter claim' so don't use that term by mistake.

You want to read sassi's costs schedule.

Last question (sorry) - what can I expect of a Small Claims Court (just as I'm a bit scared!) - is it a big court room with a judge?

Usually a smaller office or side room (courts handle lost of things, inquests etc and don't only have massive wood panelled rooms, albeit Manchester IS a large court building with some larger rooms!) and yes with a Judge. If you get Judge Iyer, you should be laughing!

Read some people's court reports, I linked a few in the NEWBIES thread post #2 where they say ''phew, it wasn't scary'' and they then explain what happened from an ordinary person's POV.

KeithP

pandorapandora wrote: »

Last question (sorry) - what can I expect of a Small Claims Court (just as I'm a bit scared!) - is it a big court room with a judge?

These two videos should help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZyb4HYC5A8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93eoaxhzpU