Sennen PCN

16kidsandcounting

One question I have for you is whether I should still request a SAR? I understand that this should have been at the time I received the Letter of Claim, but would it still be worthwhile?

Coupon-mad

Yes it's always worth it.

Takes their staff time, for a start = good. PPCs are 'scam' firms (Parliament said so) and the more obstacles you out in the way of their worthless business the better.

And a SAR shows your son their hand, helps you to see the holes in the case.

16kidsandcounting

Hi all,


We received a notice of allocation to the small claims track (hearing) for a date towards the end of November. We have until 24 Oct to send to the court and claimant copies of all documents that my son intends to rely upon at the final hearing, and the claimant has to reciprocate. N.B. No documents have been received from the claimant yet.


I intend to prepare a witness statement, and submit copies of the parking ticket (front and back).


Question: do we need to prepare evidence for each of the cases/examples referred to in the defence?


Thanks in advance

Umkomaas

Question: do we need to prepare evidence for each of the cases/examples referred to in the defence?

As best as possible. Use extracts of relevant paras/pages. For example, if quoting from the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, don’t copy and attach all 280+ pages of it, just the relevant ones.

Don’t use internet links to follow for evidence. The Judge is unlikely to do that.

Coupon-mad

Please show us your draft WS & evidence list.

The_Deep

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten of these tickets are scams so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra work.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.[/FONT]

16kidsandcounting

In the County Court at Plymouth
Claim No. ZZZZZZZZZ
Between
KBT Cornwall Limited (Claimant)
and
XXXXXXXXX (Defendant)

---

Witness Statement

---

1. I am XXXXXXX, of XXXXXXXXXXXX, I am the Defendant in this matter. I am an unrepresented consumer who is not experienced at attending county court. In this statement I will refer to the documents contained in exhibit marked XXX1, by page number. I will say as follows:

2. On XX/06/18, I visited Sennen Cove Harbour Car Park, and parked my vehicle registration no XXXXX in the car park.

3. I purchased a ticket for 2 hours parking covering the period from XXXX to XXXX from the pay and display machine. I carefully displayed the ticket face up on the dashboard of my car, checking that it was visible as I left my vehicle.

4. I refer you to page XX of my evidence documents, which shows the parking ticket covering the time of the alleged incident.

5. On return to my vehicle, which was before the parking ticket expired, I found that I had been issued with a Parking Charge Notice. Unfortunately, the ticket was now face down on the seat of my vehicle.
6. If you look closely at the ticket you can see it is made of a flimsy piece of paper with no sticky part to it so that it could be fixed in place on the dashboard or windscreen. Since this incident occurred I am aware that there have been many occurrences of Parking Charge Notices resulting from similar circumstances for this car park.
7. The photo in the Claimant’s evidence will clearly show the ticket I purchased on the day displayed upside down in the vehicle. The photos of the car do not show how windy the big open car park was on the day.
8. The Claimant’s evidence of a specimen sign (Contract) states “A valid ticket must be purchased to park on this site and be displayed clearly in your front windscreen”. This from the Claimant’s own evidence was clearly adhered to since the ticket was visible from the windscreen. Any breach (which, for avoidance of doubt, is denied) was de minimis.
9. I then received a Claim Form on XX May XXXX (page xx of XXX1). The Particulars of Claim set out in the Claim Form do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 as there is nothing which specifies what the terms of the alleged contract were, or how they were breached. The Particulars are not “clear and concise” as is required by CPR 16.4 1(a). There is no information regarding why the charge arose, what the original charge was, what the alleged contract was nor anything which could be considered a fair exchange of information. It just states “parking charges” which does not give any indication of on what basis the claim is brought. The claimant also failed to provide a copy of their written contract as per Practice Direction 16 7.3(1) and Practice Direction 7C 1.4(3A).

10. I dispute that the Claimant has incurred £50 Solicitors costs to pursue an alleged £100 debt, the costs of which are in any case not recoverable. The claimant has described the charge of £50 as ‘legal representative’s costs’ not ‘contractual costs’ CPR 31.14 does not permit these to be recoverable in the Small Claims Court. The Claimant has at no time provided an explanation of how the sum claimed has been calculated, the conduct that gave rise to it or how the amount has climbed from £100 to the £160 now sought.


11. On the day in question I had every intention to pay for parking, and I did so, and I genuinely thought I had complied with the terms of parking in the car park (and was justified in that belief). Circumstances beyond my control must have occurred which caused the ticket to have flipped over when I was away from the car. This occurrence comes under the de minimis principle, particularly as the ticket has a serial/reference number on the back.

12. In Jolley v Carmel Ltd [2000] 2 –EGLR -154, it was held that a party who makes reasonable endeavours and takes reasonable steps to comply with contractual terms, should not be penalised for breach outside of their control.

13. Fluttering tickets are routinely accepted as a valid defence to Council Penalty Charge Notices and whilst contractual principles are not applied to such notices, it is indicative of the fact that circumstances out of your control, and where the driver has clearly paid for the parking, are deemed to be a good reason for those notices to be cancelled.


14. I include the views of Council Adjudicators regarding the well-known issue of 'flimsy fluttering tickets' because the Supreme Court (and the Court of Appeal Judges) in Beavis were happy to draw similarities with Council PCNs:
(link removed)

‘In DB05057D the adjudicator said: “…having seen the original ticket I note that it is made of rather thin paper which is likely to be dislodged when a car door is shut. It may be that the Council would argue that it is the driver's responsibility to ensure that the ticket is on display when the vehicle is left, but on the other hand if it chooses to issue pay and display tickets made of such thin paper it must expect that now and again this type of situation will arise.”
In HV05040D the adjudicator accepted the appellant’s evidence that she had displayed the ticket on the dash and checked after closing the door that it was still there. He said: “I am not aware of any signs in the car park suggesting the use of adhesives by motorists when parking their cars."’

15. Since the date of the incident I have received many letters from KBT Cornwall Ltd trading as Armtrac Security Services and subsequently from BW Legal requesting ever increasing sums of money and giving warnings of County Court Judgements affecting my credit record.

16. I invite the Court to dismiss this claim in its entirety, and to award my costs of attendance at the hearing, such as are allowable pursuant to CPR 27.14.

Statement of Truth

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

Signature
Date

Coupon-mad

I'd go with this, to make the Judge think about the issue more - and you know the ticketer will not turn up as witness so no danger there but it will look bad on them that they haven't sent a true witness (they'll probably send their Director who will say a load of flannel, so be ready to call him out and ask how many claims are abut these flimsy tickets and why they are 'not fit for purpose'):

6. If you look closely at the ticket you can see it is made of a flimsy piece of paper with no sticky part to it so that it could be fixed in place on the dashboard or windscreen. Since this incident occurred I am aware that there have been many occurrences of Parking Charge Notices resulting from similar circumstances for this car park. There have even been allegations of this Claimant's operatives blowing through vents, because the scam is so rife as to add up to thousands of reported instances every year. I expect the ticketer to appear as witness so that I can question them at the hearing regarding how the ticket overturned in this case, given that I was not in breach when I parked.

Coupon-mad

I'd move your #9 down to under your #15, and REMOVE your #10 which needs to be stronger about calling out their fake costs, especially the imaginary £60 'damages' which is a bare faced lie.

Replace it by adding at the end, a section with a heading about disproportionate and disingenuous costs, using the long wording I wrote in post #14 of beamerguy's Abuse of Process thread. use ALL of it but at the end of your WS, and PLEASE NUMBER ALL THE PARAGRAPHS YOU ADD ABOUT THIS, NOT THE HYPHENS I PUT IN THE EXAMPLE!

Tabz123

Hi Coupon-mad, can you please post a link to 'beamer guys abuse of process' thread as can't seem to locate this through the advanced search.
Thanks