UKCPM/Gladstones Claim Form Defence.. Comment please!

KeithP

Yes .

noisyneighbour

Thank you for prompt response!

noisyneighbour

Dear all,

Thank you for your wealth of knowledge and willingness to help people like myself.
Court hearing date has been set (in 2wks 3days time), and I will post my WS off tomorrow. #

So far, Gladstones didn't serve their WS to me.

I would very much appreciated if you could review and comment my draft below.

Thank you!

IN THE COUNTY COURT AT xxxx
CLAIM No. xxxx
Between:
UK Car Park Management Ltd (Claimant)

-and-

Mr xxxx xxxx (Defendant)

---

WITNESS STATEMENT

---

1. I am xxxx, of xxxx, the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2. At xxxx on xx day, I stopped my car (registration xxxx) in front of the entrance of xxxxxx, whilst transferring two sleeping infants to our home in the middle of a chilly night.

3. My two sons were x months and x years old at the time. My allocated parking bay was located approximately xxx meters away from the entrance of our block. Our home was located on the 6th floor of the block. [1]

4. There was no area specifically reserved for loading/unloading within the development where the leaseholder could put down passengers, according to the Plan of the Lease. The area of the alleged offence was not marked in hatch / road marking / raised pavement.

5. I was the leaseholder of xxxx at the time and displayed a valid resident’s parking permit for use of an allocated parking bay. A resident parking permit (with my bay number) was displayed on the windscreen. [14]

6. The location in dispute has been commonly used by residents for loading/unloading goods and passengers. I returned my car approximately 10 minutes later and moved my car to my allocated parking bay at the back of our block.

7. There was no indication that anything was out of ordinary at the time. Nothing was affixed to my windscreen. A UK CPM operative would typically affix a yellow parking charge notice on windscreen if there is any offending vehicle within our development.

8. In xxxx 201x, I received a parking charge notice dated xxxx from UK CPM, demanding £100 payment. (Basis for demand: ‘No Parking Outside of a Designated Area’) [4]

9. We purchased a house in xxxx in xxxx and moved out of xxxx on xxxx. Since January 201x, I received 3 x letters from Debt Recovery Services Ltd; 1 letter x from Gladstones Solicitors via Royal Mail redirection service. [5] ~ [8]

10. Having dealt with UK CPM previously in 201x and 201y, I disregarded the letters as any request for ticket cancellation or appeal would be met by an automatic refusal by UK CPM.

No Reasonable Grace Period Allowed by the Claimant

11. On xxxx 201x, I received a ‘Letter Before Claim’ dated xxxx 201x from Gladstones Solicitors via current resident of xxxx. [9]

12. On xxxx, I requested Gladstones Solicitors to provide me with a full set of evidence that they held regarding the alleged offence. [10]

13. In response, the Gladstones Solicitors replied (via e-mail) with copies of two demand letters by UK CPM dated xxx and xxxx [11] [12]. And they also sent me four digital photographs of my car in front of the block. [13].
 
14. UK CPM’s first demand letter (dated 1 November 2018) stated that “Incident Time/Date: 23:55 xxx”. In the first main paragraph of the letter, it stated that the alleged offence took place at 23:55, implying that my car stayed at the alleged location at least 30 minutes. [13]

15. In UK CPM’s second demand letter dated xxxx. it stated that “Issue Date: yyyy , Issue Time: 22:30” which was incorrect. In the first main paragraph of the letter, however, it stated that the alleged offence took place at 23:55, implying that my car stayed at the alleged location at least 30 minutes. [12]

16. On close examination of the four digital photographs, I noted that photographs were taken by an UK CPM operative between 22:07 and 22:08. [13]

17. My Google Location log (linked to my Google Map GPS navigation app) shows that I arrived at xxxxat 22:00. [14]

18. The Claimant’s proof do not to corroborate the actual duration of my temporary stopping of the vehicle. In fact, I was at the alleged location for approximately 10 minutes at most, not 30 minutes as UK CPM claims.

19. This is in breach of the Part B.15 of International Parking Community (IPC) code of practice. It stipulates at least 10 minutes grace period to be allowed. Less than ten minutes cannot be considered as reasonable 'grace period'. [15]

20. The Claimant is an ‘accredited’ operator of IPC, and by which they must therefore abide. Whilst this Code of Practice is not statutory, compliance with the Code is mandatory in order for parking operators to obtain vehicle keeper details from the DVLA.
 

2016 Appeal case (a UKCPM parking claim turning on similar facts) is persuasive

21. The facts of this case are similar to those in the Appeal case of Jopson v Homeguard Services (B9GF0A9E, Oxford County Court, 2016), where a car had stopped temporarily near the entrance in order to unload some furniture.

22. HHJ Harris QC held, in his Judgment that ''a right of access permitted short incidental stops for the purpose of access to her flat'' (para 18, [16]]). Specifically, it was stated that brief stops for delivering or unloading items, dropping off passengers, etc. were not 'parking'; a definition which was fully explored by this Senior Circuit Judge, who observed that life at a block of flats would be ''unworkable'' if every resident or visitor ran a risk of immediate ticketing, when the vehicle was not in fact parked, and before any contract could possibly have been agreed. (para 21, [16])

23. The Judgment in Jopson also makes it clear that the factual circumstances are quite different from those which applied in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, and that case is distinguished. (para 14, [16] )

24. The 'Jopson v Home Guard' appeal case to support my contention that the car didn't park and indeed that the residents and their visitors have rights of way and easements that certainly would allow them to unload furniture and belongings to move in.
The Lease (Peaceful Enjoyment)

25. In Clause X.X of my lease, it afforded me to “peaceably enjoy the Premises during the Term without any lawful interruption by the Landlord or any person rightfully claiming under or in trust for it”. [17] It was shown by the case Jopson v Home Guard that tenancy contract takes precedent over any supposed operator contract in the case of loading and unloading.

26. At the time of writing this Witness Statement, the Claimant did not serve me their Witness Statement nor evidence pack. In my Defence dated xxxx, I asked the Claimant to provide a proof that they have standing to bring any claim in the absence of a contract that expressly permits the Claimant to do so, in addition to merely undertaking parking management. The Claimant, who is not a party to the Lease [17] [18] and has no proprietary interest in the land, has not provided a proof of any such entitlement.

Misleading Trading Practices / Artificially inflated charges

27. The Claimant has previously sent threatening and misleading demands which stated that further debt recovery action would be taken to recover what is owed by passing the debt to a recovery agent (which suggested to the Defendant they would be calling round like bailiffs) adding further unexplained charges of varying amounts (£49, £26.65, £60). The Claimant has at no time provided an explanation how the sum has been calculated, the conduct that gave rise to it or how the amount has changed from £100 to £149 to £126.65 to £149 to £160 to £179.52 [4]~[9]. This appears to be an attempt at adding costs with no legal basis, and an attempt at double recovery, in order to circumvent the Civil Procedure Rules.

28. The Claimant did not serve a compliant ‘Letter Before County Claim’, on the Defendant, as mandated by the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims. [9] Further to this, the Particulars of Claim as pleaded in the N1 Claim Form are extremely sparse [19], and do not disclose a proper Cause of Action, but instead offer a menu of choices. As such, the Particulars do not comply with CPR 16.4, and the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers.

29. The Court is invited to dismiss the claim and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

30. I believe that the facts stated in this Witness Statement are true.


....................................... ......................
(Defendant) (Date)

 

noisyneighbour

And here is my list of Evidences..

[1] Google Map screen capture, showing distance from the entrance of block and Allocated Parking Bay
[2] Plan of Lease
[3] Photos of the area of dispute
[4] Parking Charge Notice issued by UK CPM,
[5] Letter from Debt Recovery Plus,
[6] Letter from Debt Recovery Plus,
[7] Letter from Debt Recovery Plus,
[8] Letter from Gladstones Solicitors,
[9] Letter Before Claim letter from Gladstones Solicitors,
[10] Letter (E-mail) from the Defendant to Gladstones Solicitors
[11] Response from Gladstones Solicitors– (i) E-mail
[12] Response from Gladstones Solicitors dated– (ii) 2 x Parking Charge Notice letters issued by UK CPM,
[13] Response from Gladstones Solicitors dated – (iii) 4 x Digital Photographs showing alleged contravention, taken by a UK CPM operative
[14] Google Timeline Log and GPS plot in the evening of Saturday
[15] IPC (International Parking Community) Accredited Operator Code of Practice
[16] Transcript of the judgement the case of Jopson v Homeguard, 9GF0A9E 12
[17] Shared Ownership Underlease
[18] Lease
[19] N1 Claim Form

Coupon-mad

Court hearing date has been set (in 2wks 3days time), and I will post my WS off tomorrow.

I would not post that, the cost will be huge and it won't be in a nice ring binder with dividers and a contents page, as we suggest people hand in person at their local court. Also, by posting some papers to a court, I have visions of them filing it/losing it.

noisyneighbour

Ok. I will hand deliver it to the court. Did I get the tone / argument right, though?

I received a copy of WS from Gladstones yesterday. Looks like a generic stuff. I will study and tailor my WS further this morning..

Coupon-mad

Your WS and evidence list is very good.

This bit doesn't make sense as that's not 30 minutes:

14. UK CPM’s first demand letter (dated 1 November 2018) stated that “Incident Time/Date: 23:55 xxx”. In the first main paragraph of the letter, it stated that the alleged offence took place at 23:55, implying that my car stayed at the alleged location at least 30 minutes. [13]

And Jopson v Homeguard wasn't a 'UKCPM' case so just remove that word:

2016 Appeal case (a UKCPM parking claim turning on similar facts) is persuasive

noisyneighbour

@Coupon-Mad: Thanks for reassuring feedback!

This bit doesn't make sense as that's not 30 minutes

--> Time stamps were deliberately altered for anonymity.
Based on my actual timeline, however, I can demonstrate CPM's paperworks and photographs contained inconsistent & incorrect time stamps all over the place.

I hand delivered my WS to my local county court and posted it to Gladstones yesterday. Please wish me a good luck! I'll update you after my court hearing in two weeks.

The_Deep

Good luck, I cannot see how they can counter Jopson.

System

Based on my actual timeline, however, I can demonstrate CPM's paperworks and photographs contained inconsistent & incorrect time stamps all over the place.

If UKCPM are indeed altering timestamps, and if a judge made it a finding of fact they did, the transcript of the case would be persuasive for others.

It would help to contact UKPCM to ask the specific question if they checked the timestamps as it is your honestly held belief they have been altered. As UKCPM supply DIY kits, it is not beyond the possibility that their "client" has altered the evidence as UKCPM don't bother checking. In fact, UKCPM don't bother checking anything including land ownership. They rely on the "honesty" of their clients.

Get proof you sent it.