Letter Before Claim From Gladstones

Davehrm

Thanks for all your help👍

GUNIT

***FINAL DEFENCE DRAFT***

Can someone please confirm this is good to go?

It seems really long but from the 'costs on the claim' onwards, it was all copied straight from the post # 14 of the thread by beamerguy which is about the abuse of process.

DEFENCE

1.It is admitted that the defendant, XXXXXX XXXXX, is the registered keeper of the vehicle.
1.1. It is denied that there was any 'relevant obligation' or 'relevant contract' relating to any parking event, in fact it is denied that the car was actually parked/left for any period of time that can warrant any 'contractual parking charge'.
1.2. It is denied that any 'parking charges or indemnity costs' (whatever they might be) are owed. Any purported 'debt' is denied in its entirety.
2. The alleged parking charge relates to one minute whilst the vehicle was present at the stated location.
2.1. It was when the claimant checked the CCTV that they issued a predatory parking ticket.

Rebuttal of Claim
3. The vehicle was present at the stated location for a total of one minute between entering the car park and the invoice being issued, which can not be reasonably considered a ‘grace period’ in which time the driver may find a sufficiently legible sign, so as to ascertain the terms of use of the parking bays. This is in breach of the BPA code of practice, to which the claimant is an Accredited operator, and by which they must therefore abide. This code states 'If a driver is parking without your permission, or at locations where parking is not normally permitted they must have the chance to read the terms and conditions before they enter into the ‘parking contract’ with you. If, having had that opportunity, they decide not to park but choose to leave the car park, you must provide them with a reasonable grace period to leave, as they will not be bound by your parking contract’ a point that has been made to both the issuers of the invoice. Neither company has acknowledged this point and has intentionally pursued an illegitimate claim.

4. Further and in the alternative, it is denied that the claimant's signage sets out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them. The signs where facing the opposite way from where the car entered.
4.1. The terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.

No standing or landowner authority
5. The Claimant is put to strict proof that it has sufficient proprietary interest in the land, or that it has the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices under defined parameters (including when caused by failure of their own data processing/excessive storage) and to form/offer contracts in their own name, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.

Costs on the claim - disproportionate and disingenuous
6. CPR 44.3 (2) states: ''Where the amount of costs is to be assessed on the standard basis, the court will –
6.1 only allow costs which are proportionate to the matters in issue. Costs which are disproportionate in amount may be disallowed or reduced even if they were reasonably or necessarily incurred; and
6.2 resolve any doubt which it may have as to whether costs were reasonably and proportionately incurred or were reasonable and proportionate in amount in favour of the paying party.

7. Whilst quantified costs can be considered on a standard basis, this Claimant's purported costs are wholly disproportionate and do not stand up to scrutiny.

8. The standard wording for parking charge/debt recovery contracts is on the Debt Recovery Plus website - ''no recovery/no fee'', thus establishing an argument that the Claimant is breaching the indemnity principle - claiming reimbursement for a cost which has never, in fact, been incurred. This is true, whether or not they used a third party debt collector during the process.

9. In fact it is averred that the Claimant has not paid or incurred such damages/costs or 'legal fees' at all. Any debt collection letters were a standard feature of a low cost business model and are already counted within the parking charge itself and there has been no legal advice or personal involvement by any solicitor in churning out this template claim.

10. The Parking Eye Ltd v Beavis case is the authority for recovery of the parking charge itself and no more, since that sum (£85 in Beavis) was held to already incorporate the minor costs of an automated private parking business model. There are no losses or damages caused by this business model and the Supreme Court Judges held that a parking firm not in possession cannot plead any part of their case in damages.

11. Unlike this mendacious and greedy Claimant, ParkingEye themselves took on board the Beavis case outcome and they never add fake costs on top of the parking charge. It is indisputable that an alleged 'parking charge' penalty is a sum which the Supreme Court found is already inflated to more than comfortably cover all costs. The case provides a finding of fact by way of precedent, that the £85 (or up to a Trade Body ceiling of £100 depending upon the parking firm) covers the costs of the letters, and all parking firms are very familiar with this case:

“at para 98. {re ...The desirability of running that parking scheme at no cost, or ideally some profit, to themselves} ''Against this background, it can be seen that the £85 charge had two main objects. One was to manage the efficient use of parking space in the interests of the retail outlets, and of the users of those outlets who wish to find spaces in which to park their cars [...] The other purpose was to provide an income stream to enable ParkingEye to meet the costs of operating the scheme and make a profit from its services...''

at para 193. ''Judging by ParkingEye’s accounts, and unless the Chelmsford car park was out of the ordinary, the scheme also covered ParkingEye's costs of operation and gave their shareholders a healthy annual profit.''

at para 198. ''The charge has to be and is set at a level which enables the managers to recover the costs of operating the scheme. It is here also set at a level enabling ParkingEye to make a profit.''
”* Any purported 'legal costs' are also made up out of thin air. Given the fact that robo-claim solicitors and parking firms process tens of thousands of claims handled by an admin team or paralegals, the Defendant avers that no solicitor is likely to have supervised this current batch of cut & paste claims. The court is invited to note that no named Solicitor has signed the Particulars, in breach of Practice Direction 22, and rendering the statement of truth a nullity.

12. According to Ladak v DRC Locums UKEAT/0488/13/LA a Claimant can only recover the direct and provable costs of the time spent preparing the claim in a legal capacity, not any administration costs allegedly incurred by already remunerated administrative staff.

13. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 (POFA) makes it clear that the will of Parliament regarding parking on private land is that the only sum potentially able to be recovered is the sum in any compliant 'Notice to Keeper' (and the ceiling for a 'parking charge', as set by the Trade Bodies and the DVLA, is £100). This also depends upon the Claimant fully complying with the statute, including 'adequate notice' of the parking charge and prescribed documents served in time/with mandatory wording. It is submitted the claimant has failed on all counts and the Claimant is well aware their artificially inflated claim, as pleaded, constitutes double recovery.

14. Judges have disallowed all added parking firm 'costs' in County courts up and down the Country. In Claim number F0DP201T on 10th June 2019, District Judge Taylor sitting at the County Court at Southampton, echoed earlier General Judgement or Orders of DJ Grand, who (when sitting at the Newport (IOW) County Court in 2018 and 2019) has struck out several parking firm claims. These include a BPA member serial Claimant (Britannia, using BW Legal's robo-claim model) and an IPC member serial Claimant (UKCPM, using Gladstones' robo-claim model) yet the Orders have been identical in striking out both claims without a hearing, with the Judge stating: ''It is ordered that The claim is struck out as an abuse of process. The claim contains a substantial charge additional to the parking charge which it is alleged the Defendant contracted to pay. This additional charge is not recoverable under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 nor with reference to the judgement in ParkingEye v Beavis. It is an abuse of process from the Claimant to issue a knowingly inflated claim for an additional sum which it is not entitled to recover. This order has been made by the court of its own initiative without a hearing pursuant to CPR Rule 3.3(4) of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998...''

15. That is not an isolated judgement striking a parking claim out for repeatedly adding sums they are not entitled to recover. In the Caernarfon Court in Case number FTQZ4W28 (Vehicle Control Services Ltd v Davies) on 4th September 2019, District Judge Jones-Evans stated:

''Upon it being recorded that Distract Judge Jones-Evans has over a very significant period of time warned advocates [...] in many cases of this nature before this court that their claim for £60 is unenforceable in law and is an abuse of process and is nothing more than a poor attempt to go behind the decision of the Supreme Court v Beavis which inter alia decided that a figure of £160 as a global sum claimed in this case would be a penalty and not a genuine pre-estimate of loss and therefore unenforceable in law and if the practice continued he would treat all cases as a claim for £160 and therefore a penalty and unenforceable in law it is hereby declared [...] the claim is struck out and declared to be wholly without merit and an abuse of process.''

16. In summary, the Claimant's particulars disclose no legal basis for the sum claimed and it is the Defendant's position that the poorly pleaded claim discloses no cause of action and no liability in law for any sum at all. The Claimant's vexatious conduct from the outset has been intimidating, misleading and indeed untrue in terms of the added costs alleged and the statements made, in trying to justify the unjustifiable.

17. There are several options available within the Courts' case management powers to prevent vexatious litigants pursuing a wide range of individuals for matters which are near-identical, with meritless claims and artificially inflated costs. The Defendant is of the view that private parking firms operate as vexatious litigants and that relief from sanctions should be refused.

The Court is invited to make an Order of its own initiative, dismissing this claim in its entirety and to allow such Defendant's costs as are permissible under Civil Procedure Rule 27.14 on the indemnity basis, taking judicial note of the wholly unreasonable conduct of this Claimant.


Statement of Truth:

I believe that the facts stated in this Defence are true.

Le_Kirk

That is about the right number of paragraphs for a standard defence, however, EACH and EVERY paragraph requires a number. It is also recommended to use simple numbering rather than sub-paragraphs.

GUNIT

Ok thanks I will make sure the paragraphs have a number. But apart from that is it done?

Appreciate the feedback, I do not know how I would of done it without this forum.

Coupon-mad

GUNIT wrote: »

One Parking Solution

Using Gladstones, not BW Legal?

Remove this, it's pointless and almost supports what they did in a way, when in fact CCTV surveillance is not supposed to be abused like this:

2.1. It was when the claimant checked the CCTV that they issued a predatory parking ticket.

Which car park and will your court claim be in Sussex, if so, do you want help?

GUNIT

Yes One Parking Solution using Gladstones.

Ok I shall remove that part, I understand.

The car park is 'Stoke Abbott Court, Worthing'

All I know is the court address on the form is in Northampton but yes I hope it is in Sussex. I think earlier on in this thread someone said you get to choose.

Coupon-mad

You do get to choose in your Directions Questionnaire and to give your non-available dates. Have you read the thread by StubbornGoat, where I attended with him at Worthing court last month and we very nearly got him £1500 granted in costs, when he won v UKCPM (a different PPC to yours)?

Read it. DJ Ellis is very sharp - she was a fair Judge if you get her.

I am happy to help you too and attend with you, if you wish.

Le_Kirk

The County Court Business Centre is in Northampton but when you have completed and submitted your DQ (see NEWBIE thread post # 2 and Bargepole's post What Happens and When) you will be able to choose your local court.

Coupon-mad

Your defence looks fine. Covers all the bases.

Don't forget to pm me nearer the time if you want support, and I can help you write your WS for you for nothing. I enjoy beating the scammers.

GUNIT

Yes yes yes!!!! Thank you so much.

I will read what you have suggested and send off the defence using the instructions previously said in this thread.

I will keep this thread updated along the way and pm you if I need some extra help Coupon-Mad.

Again, thank you for your help.