Parking ticket, received court letters, district enforcement

i_liketurtles

Good Afternoon All,
Apologies in advance for the long post, and if i make any daft mistakes.

Back In March of this year i attended an exam at Staffs Uni for my distance learning degree. It was the first time i had visited the campus. the building where i was taking my exam had a gravel car park in it where i parked my vehicle. i parked in the same pattern as the rest of the car park had, and went on to take my exam.
Upon returning to my vehicle i found i had a parking ticket from district enforcement for 'obstructive parking.'
My vehicle was not obstructing vehicles from any other parking bay, which i took photos of my vehicle immediately to show. Towards the end of the appeal period i emailed the district enforcement appeals address with my photos and my reasons for appeal. They replied a couple of days later saying that to continue the appeal they would need my full address. i'm not really keen on handing that out so i replied querying why they would need that at this stage. they responded saying that they required it to continue the appeal and would retrieve it from the DVLA.
After that i heard nothing at all, no acceptance or denial of my appeal, no further chasing for money, until the end of September when i received a claim form from the County Court with a total amount over £200. (the original parking ticket was £35.) It is District Enforcement as the Claimant using Gladstones Solicitors.
I have used the MCOL service and completed the AOS, and i believe it gives me until the 22nd of October to upload my defense.
I have photos that show that i was not parked in an obstructive manner, however the Claim form states that the ticket is for breaching the terms of parking on the land, where as the ticket itself cites obstructive parking.
Foolishly on the day i didn't think to take photographs of the sign at the car park, one because i couldn't see one, and two because to me it seemed obvious from the photos of my car that i wasn't obstructively parked. i realise this was probably quite foolish, however i have sinced asked a colleague of mine who lives close to the campus to visit and photograph the sign.
The sign is in fact not as you enter the car park, but at the barriers to the campus and with regards to the obstructive parking it states the following.'Parked so as to cause any obstruction or inconvenience to others or otherwise block any other vehicles path.' to which i truly do not believe my vehicle was.
Im really looking for advice on how to structure my defence. i feel my strongest side is that i was never given the proper appeals process, so may go in with that as my initial argument?
would love to hear what the experts think, thanks in advance for your time, and sorry if i've missed anything obvious or necessary.:beer:

i_liketurtles

I do have images of most things mentioned however due to being new to the forum i am unable to attach links.

Coupon-mad

district enforcement

Oh, haven't seen many DE cases at Staffs Uni recently.

A well known scam site - and so very bad that I would never ever have encouraged my kids to even look at that Uni. They went to places with either no scammer or just F1rst Parking (who were a pushover to beat on appeal).

Anyway I digress - we had this one last month and the same advice applies to you:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74804763#Comment_74804763

See the links, see how DE have actually taken lecturers to Court, I bet they are so damn proud of the filthy money they make from this location, where it was rumoured they ALLEGEDLY had a 'relative' connection letting them stay.

An ''outrageous scam'' (Hansard 2.2.18) if ever there was one; fight it all the way.

i_liketurtles wrote: »

I do have images of most things mentioned however due to being new to the forum i am unable to attach links.

You can. Break the URL link! Change http to hxxp and add a break or two in the link.

KeithP

What is the Date of Issue on your Claim Form?

Can you please post the exact contents of the Particulars of Claim box on your Claim Form?

i_liketurtles

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Oh, haven't seen many DE cases at Staffs Uni recently.

A well known scam site - and so very bad that I would never ever have encouraged my kids to even look at that Uni. They went to places with either no scammer or just F1rst Parking (who were a pushover to beat on appeal).

Doing even a 1 minute google search had made this clear! to be honest im not sure why i was surprised!

You can. Break the URL link! Change http to hxxp and add a break or two in the link.

great advice, i shall do that now.
hxxps://imgur. com/a /w7Bn4qa
hxxps://imgur. com/a /pCLQ4lF

that shows the sign and the location of it.

hxxps://imgur. com/a /T8NVXiq

that shows the vehicle parked

all the links have xx instead of tt, a space after imgur. and a space after /a :money:

Coupon-mad

https://imgur.com/a/T8NVXiq

Looks like a perfectly reasonable parking place for you to stop. No yellow lines, nothing to say no parking, and why is that not a bay anyway (they could put it just in front of the tree and a small car would fit fine). Your small car DOES fit fine!

https://imgur.com/a/w7Bn4qa

That final contravention is a new one, it was never on the signs before. Dyl Kurpil of DE has probably had it added as they were losing court claims, but IMHO he deserves to lose them. An ex-Policeman now operating in what Parliament described as an ''outrageous scam'' industry.

Nothing to be proud of especially if it's true that they ALLEGEDLY had a relative in Staffs University's Estates Team (rumoured to be Lynda Begg, IIRC). Should be ashamed, even if that bit is not proven/true, the entire operation is nasty and targets staff and students. Truly horrible.

Anyway this looks like an older sign:

https://imgur.com/a/pCLQ4lF

You can beat this scam.

Just had an idea as well, thanks to something IamEmanresu said on another Uni thread:

Send a Freedom of Information Request to the University asking for the contract with District Enforcement, and previous versions, and all notes and updates regarding the Tender process and discussions about other potential parking firms. And ask outright whether the University can identify any 'conflicts of interest' regarding any University staff - past or present - being related to (by blood or otherwise) any staff, Directors or anyone connected to District Enforcement.

If so, you ask that the University supplies that evidence and answers the question as to whether that person connected to DE had any hand in their appointment or continued appointment, and to provide all emails and minutes of any meetings where this was discussed. And to interrogate their email system for all emails between that staff member and DE, and show them.

i_liketurtles

KeithP wrote: »

What is the Date of Issue on your Claim Form?

Can you please post the exact contents of the Particulars of Claim box on your Claim Form?

Hi there, sorry for the delay, been away from the computer for the weekend.

The issue date is the 19th of September, and the particulars of the claim say;

'The Driver of the vehicle registration _______ (the Vehicle) incurred the parking charge(s) on _________ for breaching the terms of parking on the land at Staffs Uni Stoke Campus.
The defendant was driving the vehicle or is the keeper of the vehicle.
AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS
£130 for parking charges/Damages and indemnity costs if applicable, together with interest of £2.31 pursuant to s69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at 8% PA, continuing to judgement at £0.03 per day.'

They don't however mention in that that they have included a legal representatives fee of £50.

i_liketurtles

Just had an idea as well, thanks to something IamEmanresu said on another Uni thread:

Send a Freedom of Information Request to the University asking for the contract with District Enforcement, and previous versions, and all notes and updates regarding the Tender process and discussions about other potential parking firms. And ask outright whether the University can identify any 'conflicts of interest' regarding any University staff - past or present - being related to (by blood or otherwise) any staff, Directors or anyone connected to District Enforcement.

If so, you ask that the University supplies that evidence and answers the question as to whether that person connected to DE had any hand in their appointment or continued appointment, and to provide all emails and minutes of any meetings where this was discussed. And to interrogate their email system for all emails between that staff member and DE, and show them.

I will be sure to do this, do you think it would be best to contact estate management something like that?

i_liketurtles

Looks like a perfectly reasonable parking place for you to stop. No yellow lines, nothing to say no parking, and why is that not a bay anyway (they could put it just in front of the tree and a small car would fit fine). Your small car DOES fit fine!

Thank you! and to be honest that's what i feel should be the basis of my defense, at the end of the day, i have been ticketed for parking obstructively, and i'm not! i just need to work out how to put that, as well as the fact that they didn't follow their own appeals procedure into a well worded defense

KeithP

i_liketurtles wrote: »

The issue date is the 19th of September...

With a Claim Issue Date of 19th September, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 22nd October 2018 to file your Defence.

Still two weeks away. Plenty of time to hone your Defence to perfection, but don't leave it until the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as described here:

1) Print your 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 chase the CCBC until it is.
7) Wait for your Directions Questionnaire and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

i_liketurtles

KeithP wrote: »

With a Claim Issue Date of 19th September, and having done the Acknowledgement of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 22nd October 2018 to file your Defence.

Still two weeks away. Plenty of time to hone your Defence to perfection, but don't leave it until the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence should be filed via email as described here:

1) Print your 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 chase the CCBC until it is.
7) Wait for your Directions Questionnaire and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

Thats honestly really going to help me out, thanks i appreciate it! i actually was going to send it in the post but scanning it in makes a whole lot more sense!
Thanks :beer: