Letter Before Claim - Cloned Plates

Netsrik

Please help , I received two tickets in September last year from ES Parking in Blackpool with pictures of a vehicle exactly the same as mine and the same VRM. I was never in Blackpool and I live in Scotland. I reply to the letters informing the company that my plates must have been cloned and that I had spoken with Police Scotland advising them of this and sent a letter to the DVLA . I never heard anything at all back and thought that was it until last week when I received a Letter Before Claim from Gladstones solicitors advising that they are going to start legal action. I don't know what to do as my car wasn't in Blackpool . Do I reply to Gladstone solicitors and am I liable even though I stay in Scotland and have not been to Blackpool? Any advice would be gratefully received thanks

Redx

you say the LBC is from Gladstones solicitors, but is it ?


is it definitely from their golf club address near knutsford ?


or from DRP or some other toothless debt collector ?


as for what to do, some good advice in this recent thread about cloned plates


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5856476/help-needed-with-ukcps-parking-charge-cloned-plate-police-have-been-no-help-at-all


if it is from gladstones, then construct an LBC rebuittal and inform them that the DVLA and POLICE SCOTLAND have been informed , so any court claim will be strongly contested


dont admit any liability at all


it is their job to prove their claim is just before a court , if they cannot , they fail

The_Deep

If it is from the solicitor complain to the SRA. that you are being harassed

https://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

beamerguy

Netsrik wrote: »

Please help , I received two tickets in September last year from ES Parking in Blackpool with pictures of a vehicle exactly the same as mine and the same VRM. I was never in Blackpool and I live in Scotland. I reply to the letters informing the company that my plates must have been cloned and that I had spoken with Police Scotland advising them of this and sent a letter to the DVLA . I never heard anything at all back and thought that was it until last week when I received a Letter Before Claim from Gladstones solicitors advising that they are going to start legal action. I don't know what to do as my car wasn't in Blackpool . Do I reply to Gladstone solicitors and am I liable even though I stay in Scotland and have not been to Blackpool? Any advice would be gratefully received thanks

I hope you have kept all copies of the police/DVLA report

As said, is this a debt collector letter, maybe asking
you to pay DRP

Gladstones as solicitors are highly incompetent and most
times they don't know what shoe to put on each foot

They prostitute their letterhead to money junkies which
real solicitors don't do
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/search?q=gladstones

Do tell us please

Fruitcake

Cloned plates is very rare. Normally this kind of thing is caused by faulty ANPR. It takes an image of the number plate then modifies it so it can read it. The trouble is that any mark on the plate will cause the system to produce a made up number because it has interpreted screws, cracks, light and shadow, dirt, and allsorts of blemishes as something different to the real thing.
It's most likely that this is someone else's car but the faulty ANPR has modified the original image and produced yours.

Have a close look at the plate and car in the images provided and compare them minutely with your car. Are there dents or scratches on one but not the other. The same applies to badges. Check especially the name of the garage in the number late if there is one. Even if it can't be read, is it the same length?

All these will be ammunition to use in your defence.

Don't forget to get your MP involved with this unregulated scam.

forgotmyname

Redx wrote: »

or from DRP or some other toothless debt collector ?

Oh no.. Why did nobody tell me earlier they are toothless. There goes my xmas gift idea of a bag of toffee's for them. I will have to eat them myself now.

Just a little thank you gift for the 2 letters they sent, and i am looking forward to many more.

Any gift idea's?

The_Slithy_Tove

The muppets at Gladstones probably haven't realised that you are in Scotland, and the parking event happened in England. Did the LBC mention County Court, something that doesn't exist in Scotland?

If they're stupid enough (and they ARE stupid enough) to actually make a claim via the English court system, you simply contest jurisdiction, which leaves them in a bit of a pickle.

beamerguy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Oh no.. Why did nobody tell me earlier they are toothless. There goes my xmas gift idea of a bag of toffee's for them. I will have to eat them myself now.

Just a little thank you gift for the 2 letters they sent, and i am looking forward to many more.

Any gift idea's?

DID IT SAY PAY DRP ????? You did not come here to
tell us about gifts ...... DID YOU ???

beamerguy

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

If they're stupid enough (and they ARE stupid enough) to actually make a claim via the English court system, you simply contest jurisdiction, which leaves them in a bit of a pickle.

You are too kind Slithy, This Donald Duck and Micky Mouse
duo seriously need to see a shrink

System

If they're stupid enough (and they ARE stupid enough) to actually make a claim via the English court system, you simply contest jurisdiction

See Practice Direction 7E 4.6

Types of claims which may be started using Money Claim Online

4 A claim may be started using Money Claim Online if it meets all the following conditions -

(6) the defendant's address for service is within England and Wales.

Netsrik

Hi yes it is their Knutsford address. If it does go to court would I have to attend even though I reside in Glasgow?