Served with Court claim by VCS

The_Deep

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers be put out of business. Hopefully that will take place in the near future. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers. Read this one which I wrote earlier

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

mooney89

Thanks, I have complained to my MP. Any specific advice on the above?

The_Deep

If you have the time, and are interested, watch the debates, or read Hansard.

Coupon-mad

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-11-23/debates/005F9F65-57E5-4AD0-B6EC-C26C75A7AAA2/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

Here is a link to Friday's proceedings (commences at 12:04.50)

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/e5b67de6-b2f5-4e03-98bf-52d40c8af2df

mooney89

With respect I really don't understand the legislative process around POPLA enough to see how that parliamentary debate helps my defence in any practical way. Could anyone offer a critique of the defence ive posted before i submit it? Thanks in advance for any help!

Coupon-mad

It's not the legislative process we are pointing you to read/watch. It's really the strength of opinion and the words of the MPs when discussing the scam and how damning they are about the entire industry.

That's got to be useful for you to know, in case your MP is useless and just to give you confidence that you are fighting a scam and you have the moral high ground.

Re your defence, it looks almost there, but I would change this to a 'coloured envelope' as some people have reported it was in a red one:

This Claimant is known to routinely affix misleading pieces of paper in a yellow/black envelope impersonating authority

and remove the word 'clearly' when talking about the scumbags' unclear signs:

6.2. Signage at the car park specified in the particulars of claim states clearly

And add in a section that explains the facts - that the car appears to have been penalised for parking in a particular bay that was not marked as 'no parking' at all (no yellow lines/no signs) and the car was not obstructing other cars. It appeared to be a bay that could be used, as other drivers have been seen to do at that site before, and it seems the Claimant leaves this bay unmarked, to use it to entrap drivers, contrary to the doctrine of good faith and open dealing.

AND THIS IS NOT THE STATEMENT OF TRUTH YOU SEE ON DEFENCES, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS FROM?

The Defendant believes all of the information above to be true.

SHOULD BE

The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this defence are true.

YOU NEED TO EMAIL THAT SIGNED DEFENCE TONIGHT. HEADED - URGENT DEFENCE RE CLAIM XXXXXXX

Then, you will have to ring the CCBC in the morning and point them to your email and make sure they update MCOL on the spot, while you wait on the phone, to stop the Claimant beating you to it. Do not forget. You CANNOT ASSUME they will pick up your defence in time.

mooney89

That's great, thank you - One final thing. i don't have a printer or scanner at home, only at work - would it be acceptable to send them a word doc or does it need to be physically signed? Would i be able to take a photo of the doc on a good camera and convert it to a PDF and then sign that? If not, the earliest i could get this sent off would be tomorrow around 8:45am.

Thanks!

KeithP

Take a photo of you signature on very white paper and embed that image in the PDF document at the appropriate place.

Then file your Defence as described in post #9 above.

Coupon-mad

Not a word document. A PDF with a signature embedded in it, as KeithP says.

You are late and have no time to faff about, at all.

mooney89

Good news it seems. My defence has been received and a Defence Questionnaire sent out (so says the MCOL portal) . I'm guessing I should continue to follow the instructions on the NEWBIE thread and take it from there. Thanks to all those who have contributed and helped with this, it's a great public service and I really appreciate it.