County Court Claim - Gladstones/Horizon - Sainsbury

izzy786

My sister recently informed me that she is being taken to court by Gladstones for "breaching the terms of parking on the land of Sainsbury's..."

She is the registered keeper and allegedly parked there on 3 separate occasions.

Total amount they're seeking is just under £500.

She ignored their LBC.

She went on holiday on the same day as she received the court letter. I was informed of everything on her return so I helped her file an Acknowledgement of Service on MCOL. She now has until 3rd September to file her defence.

The bits of information that I have to hand are as follows:

Particulars of Claim:
The driver of the vehicle Registration [BLANK] (the 'Vehicle') incurred the parking charge(s) on [DATE: 1],[DATE:2] & [DATE: 3] for breaching the terms of parking on the land at Sainsbury's [TOWN] - P&D - TCHA - [ADDRESS]. The Defendant was driving the Vehicle and/or is the Keeper of the Vehicle. AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS £360 for Parking Charges / Damages and indemnity costs if applicable, together with interest of £29.31 pursuant to s69 of the County Courts Act1984 at 8% pa, continuing to Judgment at £0.08 per day.

The bits of information my sister has provided me are as follows:

The Driver knew one of the parking attendants at Sainsbury on a personal level and he assured the Driver that it was ok to park there. So the driver did park at Sainsury’s car park without paying and displaying any tickets.

A ticket was subsequently issued.

However according to the driver the ticket was placed on the driver side window and not on the actual the windscreen. Ticket was duly ignored.

Not learning from this the Driver decided to park there and got a second ticket a week later. Again it was on the side window.

The 3rd and final ticket was placed on the side window a few weeks later.

My bright sister also didn’t keep any of the earlier correspondence either.

Please advise how to proceed with defence.

Redx

see post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread, its all in there


third thread down from the top of this forum

KeithP

What is the Date of Issue printed on the Claim Form?

izzy786

06 Aug 2018

System

The Driver knew one of the parking attendants at Sainsbury on a personal level and he assured the Driver that it was ok to park there. So the driver did park at Sainsury’s car park without paying and displaying any tickets.

Ooops. So the attendant, known on a personal level, will supply the appropriate Witness Statement.

Should be easy to defend when she gets the statement.

KeithP

izzy786 wrote: »

06 Aug 2018

With a Claim Issue Date of 6th August, and the AoS done in a timely manner, your sister has until 4pm on Monday 10th September to file her Defence.

That's three weeks, but don't leave it until the last minute.


When your sister is happy with the content, her Defence should be filed via email as described here:

1) Print the Defence.
2) Sign it and date it.
3) Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
4) Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
5) Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
6) Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defended". If not, you should chase the CCBC until it is.
7) Wait for the Directions Questionnaire and come back here.

Coupon-mad

Wow, what defence does she think she has?

Very rare to park so badly - then do the same again and again, expecting a different outcome - and rely upon someone's word who will not assist her unless she calls for them with a witness summons!

izzy786

I know I already told her. Hopefully she won't be making the same mistake again.

She is saying saying that the tickets were never actually put on the windscreen but rather they were placed on the side window. I don't know if that makes any difference.

She's also just sent me the pics of the signage which appear unclear. and i'm not sure if it helps or not but i'll attach them here:

izzy786

https://imgur.com/53gIo7X
https://imgur.com/4rxWeZz
https://imgur.com/bKVxIXy

Coupon-mad

She is saying saying that the tickets were never actually put on the windscreen but rather they were placed on the side window. I don't know if that makes any difference.

No difference.

I would say there is a 'relevant obligation' to pay & display because the signs are clear enough in that respect even with the repeater 'have you paid and displayed' sign.

However there is no prominent sign showing the £100 'penalty' parking charge - it's impossible to read. So that fails the 'adequate notice' requirement of the POFA 2012 Schedule 4, and the requirement in the Consumer Rights Act, particularly for onerous terms that work to the detriment of consumers, to be transparently and very clearly legible.

She will struggle with this one but search the forum for defence Consumer Rights adequate notice prominent and copy one with those words, and adapt what you can.

If the keeper can honestly say they were not the driver, then that will also help the defence as the keeper can use the POFA, and I don't think Horizon use compliant wording for keeper liability.

System

So the attendant, known on a personal level, will supply the appropriate Witness Statement.

What happened to getting a WS from her friend, the attendant