I have a County Court Summons from Civil Enforcement Ltd

cornboy

I have read those and there wasn't many relevant WS. Most of those have a defence and then metion a WS

Coupon-mad

I just added more because you appear to be searching wrong...no idea how people struggle with putting the words CEL witness statement into the search this forum box...easy.

I edited to show you one that YOU could have found in less than one second.

cornboy

I was searching "witness statement cel" which seems to pull up very different results, thanks for the help. I really appreciate it!!!

Le_Kirk

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I just added more because you appear to be searching wrong...no idea how people struggle with putting the words CEL witness statement into the search this forum box...easy.

The trouble is C-M that if you put those words in the search box, you receive back EVERY post that has CEL or EVERY post that has WITNESS or EVERY post that has STATEMENT. There does not seem to be a way of searching for EXACT TERM like other forums or databases where you put your search words in "quotes" or use CEL & witness & statement. How do you search so that you receive ONLY CEL witness statement in that order?

Coupon-mad

The trouble is C-M that if you put those words in the search box, you receive back EVERY post that has CEL or EVERY post that has WITNESS or EVERY post that has STATEMENT.

No you don't. The results have all 3 words in any order, and the order is irrelevant.

I never choose 'exact term' - all I do is change the default to 'show posts'.

And witness statement CEL would (should) give the same results.

The one I found was on the first page of results, hardly hidden, especially as the OP's own thread came up as at least 2 results so could be immediately bypassed when looking.

This was no trouble and very easy to search for, as always.

cornboy

Well thanks so much for the help in finding what i needed. I am now going to go with this.

I, xxx of xxx am the Defendant in this case, and will say as follows.

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. The claimant has no direct contract with the defendant permitting liability to transfer to the keeper in the absence of a driver being identified and there is nothing within the POFA, criminal or civil law that permits anyone to make presumptions as to the driver.

4. The Defendant denies being the driver at the time of the alleged contravention, and therefore puts Civil Enforcement Ltd. to strict proof that any contract can exist between the Claimant and the Defendant.

5. I have no knowledge of the events, or signage terms on the date in question.

6. No Notice to Keeper was received from the Claimant and the Claimant, therefore, has not complied with the relevant statutory requirements under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. In absence of such notices, there can be no cause of action.

7. Evidence of similar cases in which the Claimant has pursued the Registered Keeper being dismissed include:
a. Excel v Mr B., C0DP33Q9 19 December 2016 at Stockport in front of District Judge Dignan. As the driver could not be identified, there couldn!!!8217;t be a contract between the private parking company and any individual.

b. Excel v Ian Lamoureux, C3DP56Q5 at Skipton in front of DJ Skalskyj-Reynolds, who was critical of the claimant's attempts to hold the keeper liable without being able to rely on PoFA. The judge suggested that the only way Mr Lamoureux could be held liable was if he was the driver and Excel could prove he was (which they could not). The judge stated that the claim against Mr Lamoureux was totally misconceived because it had no evidence that he was the driver and it seemed to be relying on some assumption that the registered keeper is the driver because it was not seeking to rely on the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. I enclose the transcript of the judgement in this case (Exhibit 4).

c. VCS v Quayle, C1DP0H0J 4 May 2017 at Liverpool in front of DDJ Gourley. The case was dismissed on the grounds that keeper liability did not apply as the Claimant was not compliant with POFA, and they offered no evidence as to who the driver was (Exhibit 5).

8. I never received the original "Parking Charge Notice," for the incident dated XXXX

9. The first correspondence (Exhibit 1) I ever received from the Claimant with respect to this PCN is dated XXXXXXXX, as a "final reminder before legal action"

10. This notice included an inflated charge of XXXXXX and absolutely no details of the location of the alleged contravention, nor any evidence of the vehicle at the scene, contract in place, or time of parking. ??????

11. I was never shown the alleged signage contract photos. As registered keeper, I never saw the 'contract' they are trying to hold me liable for.

12. Barrister and parking law expert Henry Greenslade was the Lead Parking Adjudicator for 'POPLA' ('Parking on Private Land Appeals' independent service offered by the BPA) from 2012 - 2015. I adduce as evidence Mr Greenslade's opinion in the POPLA Annual Report 2015 which confirms that there is no presumption in law that a keeper was the driver and that keepers do not have any legal obligation whatsoever, to name drivers to private parking companies. No adverse inference can be drawn from my choice not to respond to what appeared to be spam.
Unlike, for example, a Notice of Intended Prosecution where details of the driver of a vehicle must be supplied when requested by the police, pursuant to Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, a keeper sent a Schedule 4 notice has no legal obligation to name the driver (2015).


I enclose this statement from the POPLA Annual Report 2015 (Exhibit 2).


13. The Claimant's vague "Particulars of Claim" provide no explanation as to what the alleged breach of the terms + conditions are. They have simply provided a date, times and location with no indication as to whether this is a case of overstaying, lack of a paid and displayed ticket, or any other reason which may have breached the T+Cs which were in place during the date of the incident - a copy of which has never been supplied to me.

14. The claimant has failed to comply with Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 16 7.3(1), which state that a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement should be attached to or served with the Particulars of Claim (POC). It was not.

15. The Claimant also seeks to recover additional costs from the original amount set out in the POC from £100 to £25x.xx which appears to be an attempt at double recovery and which is specifically disallowed under Section 4 (5) of the POFA (Exhibit 3).

16. Furthermore, CPR 27.14 (2) (a) states that the court may not order a party to pay a sum to another party in respect of that other party's costs, fees and expenses including those relating to an appeal, except the fixed costs attributable to issuing the claim.

17. The Claimant is put to strict proof that these costs were incurred.

18. In order to demonstrate that the driver on this occasion failed to pay & display, the Claimant should have evidenced that, of course. Where are the photos of the dashboard showing no P&D ticket displayed? Failing that, as this is an ANPR site, where are the system records showing no payment made on these days? They have not even supplied lists of the VRNs input by drivers on those days, e.g. showing a mismatched payment, wrong VRN or no entry at all that corresponds with this vehicle.

19. A similarly poorly pleaded and evidenced 'private parking ticket' claim was struck out by District Judge Cross of St Albans County Court on 20/09/16 without a hearing, due to the law firm's template particulars being held to be 'incoherent', failing to comply with CPR 16.4, and ''providing no facts that could give rise to any apparent claim in law.''

20. The Court is invited to dismiss this Claim, and to allow my wasted costs which will be submitted separately and in a timely manner, depending upon whether a hearing takes place. I firmly believe that to pursue me as registered keeper and to submit such incoherent particulars and lacking 'evidence' is wholly unreasonable and vexatious.

21. Exhibited to this witness statement are the following documents in the attached bundle that I wish to rely on:
EXHIBIT 1 - Civil Enforcement Ltd. Letter 1 dated x
EXHIBIT 2 - Excerpt from POPLA (2015) re: Keeper Liability
EXHIBIT 3 - Schedule 4 Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA 2012)
EXHIBIT 4 - Excel v Ian Lamoureux, C3DP56Q5
EXHIBIT 5 - VCS v Quayle, C1DP0H0J

STATEMENT OF TRUTH:
I believe the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.

cornboy

I am presuming i will never see there witness statement or defence

nosferatu1001

What defence? Theyre the claimant.
YOu will likely find that, when the date for payment of the hearing fee comes around, they will discontinue
If this is after they need to exchange WS expect to get a very poor document, if anything

cornboy

Thanks for that, Wouldn't it be great if they had the fees before the witness statements. Stop wasting peoples time.

System

Wouldn't it be great if they had the fees before the witness statements

They do. It's usual for the second (hearing) fee to be paid prior to the WS stage. It used to be that they could get a refund if they discontinued but the courts want their fees now.