CCJ for parking ticket

jronnquist

So it appears that CPM have finally decided to turn to the courts for their pound of flesh. The first I knew about it was the "alert" from Noddle, informing me that my credit score had just crashed due to the addition of "public information" to my file.

The entry states that the judgement was issued by a court rather tellingly named the County Court Business Centre in far-off Northampton. The address they have used is my old one in Basingstoke where the ticket in question was issued. CPM (and the people they use to hound their victims) know full-well I do not live there as I have received several form letters from them at my current place of residence threatening to bring the house down on me if I do not pay. I'm guessing they gave the court my old address just to make sure I didn't get the chance to contest it before it showed up on my credit report.

The irony is that I have long-since resolved to fight this in court should it come to it, and have come close on several occasions to calling up the law firm issuing the warnings and telling them to either get on with it or go away. I appealed the original ticket in great detail at the time it was issued (I had literally run upstairs to grab my parking permit when CPMs ever-vigilant enforcement officers swooped in to issue the ticket) and have copies of both the appeal and CPMs outright and curt dismal of it on file.

But it appears I have been undercut. I now have a CCJ on file, none of the letters from the court that issued it, and do not really know where to go from here.

Anyone have any ideas?

Quentin

Everyone is politely asked to read up on this in the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum before starting a new thread

Your issue is covered there. See #2

Read up on "set aside".

Lots of other threads too on the same subject

Coupon-mad

jronnquist wrote: »

So it appears that CPM have finally decided to turn to the courts for their pound of flesh.

They often do, so you should have been ready for this stage and made sure they knew which address was the right one, by replying once (did you?).

The entry states that the judgement was issued by a court rather tellingly named the County Court Business Centre in far-off Northampton.

As per usual, that's the processing centre for MCOL that starts off most claims we see, and if you'd seen the claim and defended it you would of course have had the case brought to your local court, just like all the other UKCPM cases here.

The address they have used is my old one in Basingstoke where the ticket in question was issued. CPM (and the people they use to hound their victims) know full-well I do not live there as I have received several form letters from them at my current place of residence threatening to bring the house down on me if I do not pay. I'm guessing they gave the court my old address just to make sure I didn't get the chance to contest it before it showed up on my credit report.

Yes but did you actually respond, just once, to confirm the newer address was the correct address for service of court papers? If not you really missed a trick.

...do not really know where to go from here. Anyone have any ideas?

You don't appear to have read the NEWBIES thread yet?

So read post #2 of that sticky thread and read the section on setting aside a CCJ. Then search the forum for 'set aside draft order £255 6 points' and read 2018 versions of WS and draft orders, and copy them, to try to turn this mess around.

jronnquist

Paid the money today to get the CCJ canceled. It's a bitter pill, but having messed up by not confirming my new address with the law firm that filed it, I'm not going to spend even more money just trying to get the CCJ set aside if there is no guarantee it will succeed. Life surely can suck. :-(

Coupon-mad

Was it within 30 days of the CCJ, then? If not, paying it was a mistake.

jronnquist

Yes, the CCJ was issued on the 19th of this month, so well within 30 days. I called the "court" in Northampton this morning and the chap emailed me a copy of the claim by Gladstone, along with some additional information. When I saw that the CCJ would disappear if I paid quickly, I judged this to be the easier option. I still think the whole business is a joke. The idea that forgetting to throw a permit onto the dash in your own parking space can lead to a legal moratorium on favorable credit and any chance of a mortgage for 6 years is completely insane.

Funnily enough, I moved my girlfriend out of the same apartment complex a few weeks ago and they ticketed the moving van. No ticket on the van, just a letter from Avis saying they would be helping themselves to £30 from my debit card and that CPM would be in touch shortly to explain why. The crazy thing is, we actually spotted the ticketer and went down to make sure he didn't ticket the van. He suggested we leave the back doors wide open so he can see we're moving, and entirely neglected to mention he'd already issued the ticket.

Needles to say, this time I'm prepared and will be dealing with the farce properly.

jronnquist

Appeal rejected by CPM. Apparently the fact that the moving van I hired was too high to fit through the tunnel leading to my girlfriend's assigned space inside the courtyard was irrelevant.

The signs they've put up simply state that parking outside of designated areas or not displaying a permit will lead to a fine. No exceptions, no small print, no clarification. By this unqualified logic, anyone from the supermarket delivery vans, to the post office and even emergency services are in breach of CPM rules as soon as they get out of their vehicles and walk away. It's complete, utter, and total insanity.

Quentin

Are you dealing with CPMS?


If so they are IPC - see #1 in the Newbies FAQ. Appeals to IPC companies always are rejected, and further appeal to IAS is futile


(Do they really say you will get a "fine" on their notices?)

Ralph-y

so .... while you are fighting this please take the time to read and watch the below ...... then try and get your MP on board


https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

and slightly longer, the committee stage

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/d5550515-cce9-4185-83ec-754dadb7524a

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

These are the exact words used, so you should quote them to your MP in a complaint and ask him/her to contact Sir Greg Knight MP if he wants further information about this scam.

and some quotes from the committe stage

"The other area is hospital parking, and I want to single out one company for some pretty shady practices. That is ParkingEye"
" is very clear to me that there is collusion between parking companies and solicitors’ firms—so-called roboclaims companies. "
"They are often set up adjacently and involve the same directors and personnel. Incidentally, the same personnel get involved in the so-called appeals bodies."
"Essentially, it is a money-making enterprise that takes advantage of motorists up and down the country. They operate in a very business-like fashion, which is why I call them roboclaims companies."
"The companies are jamming up parts of our legal system."
“I now pretty much know exactly how the parking companies and in particular the IPC have been running this scam for the past 5 years. Basically both of the appeals processes are a complete and utter sham, (and part of that sham is Gladstones Solicitors itself)”
"The appeals process at Excel/VCS is run by a team of minimum wage office workers with no legal knowledge or experience whatsoever,"
" It is claimed by the head of the appeals service (retired Judge Bryn Holloway) that this is a completely independent fair process, it is not”
"The letter mentions two individuals—Will Hurley and Bryn Holloway—and concludes this is a typical example of the clear collusion between the IPC, their members and the IAS"
"what we can do about roboclaims companies and solicitors firms that profit, often in shady ways"
" the very large amounts of money that can be involved in such scams—a company called Smart Parking was involved in one such scam on my patch"
"tightening up the rules regarding the unfair use of automatic number plate recognition" "BW Legal, regularly issues 10,000 county court judgments a month, and is known to have issued 28,000 in one month"
"They are jamming up our court system, and are often totally unjustified."
" because the lifeblood of trying to extort money from people is having access to their details."

All from Parking (Code of Practice) Bill (First sitting) Hansard


Ralph:cool:

jronnquist

I have appealed to the IAS now and am waiting for a reply, but if what it says on here is right, this too will probably be futile.

On another note. As mentioned further up I paid the CCJ within a month, but Gladstone have not sent me any kind of invoice. Do I not need this to inform the court that the CCJ should now be removed?

Quentin

Why would they invoice you?


Assuming you did pay Gladstone the amount ordered by way of the CCJ, then they should inform the Court.


But they are not compelled to do so - have you checked via trust online to see if the CCJ has been removed?


If it still shows and you have proof of payment you can inform the court yourself (involves a fee).