Court letter arrived. AOS sent. Defence help required

porter77

Hi all.
First just to say thanks for amazing help, thoroughness and clarity on these threads.
My situation in a nutshell:


- I parked in a parkingeye controlled car park (prince rupert hotel, shrewsbury) with anpr
- I did not buy a ticket
- I ignored and disposed of all subsequent letters from parkingeye
- On receipt of court letter, (i.e. Claim Form against me from parking eye), I carefully and repeatedly read much of the threads here
- I then sent off my AOS


- I now don't know where to start with my defence and it seems too late to try and get the claim revoked, etc.
- ALL HELP APPRECIATED- thanks.

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

The_Deep

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

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 Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this year..

All five readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 7-8 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.

porter77

KeithP wrote: »

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Hi. Thanks for replying.


The claim form issue date is 21st Jan.


Other details I omitted:
- The signage about parking payments is fulsome and clear, and there are two payment machines (I have a photo of one, from recent reccy) clearly in view.
- Is it possible to claim that I paid for my parking, even though I have no proof of this?

Will the machine + anpr records be able to prove otherwise (it's an 'enter your reg number' machine)?


thanks again

Le_Kirk

porter77 wrote: »

- Is it possible to claim that I paid for my parking, even though I have no proof of this?

Why would you lie? If it is a hotel and you were conducting business at the hotel, ask/tell the hotel to cancel it!

Guys_Dad

I am a bit stuck to see what your defence would be. Certainly you can fight any charges above that displayed at hotel, but from the sketchy information given, with some confusion over whether you needed to buy a ticket, enter your car registration to gain free parking or what, I fear that you don't have the wherewithal to win in court, except, as I say, to dispute any charges above the signs' displayed sums.

porter77

Guys_Dad wrote: »

I am a bit stuck to see what your defence would be. Certainly you can fight any charges above that displayed at hotel, but from the sketchy information given, with some confusion over whether you needed to buy a ticket, enter your car registration to gain free parking or what, I fear that you don't have the wherewithal to win in court, except, as I say, to dispute any charges above the signs' displayed sums.

Sorry for lack of clarity.

I did need to buy a ticket, as I spent a couple of hours in the car park. I was not in the hotel, I was doing something else close by.

Re. entering car registration- sorry for confusion. I was just saying that the machine is one of those where you enter your reg. to purchase parking.

There is a sign informing people that you can obtain permission to park for free from the hotel if you're a guest. They have a terminal into which you put your details (so the sign on the machine says).


So, morally, I owe them some parking money, sure.
But the £100 plus court costs, etc feels exploitative, hence my wondering if there's anything I can do.
So, how might 'dispute any charges above the displayed sums'?
Thanks again

porter77

Le_Kirk wrote: »

Why would you lie? If it is a hotel and you were conducting business at the hotel, ask/tell the hotel to cancel it!

Thanks, but I wasn't doing business there, and now it's come to court via parkingeye, my understanding is that it's too late to revoke. Am I wrong?

Umkomaas

PE won't pull back once proceedings have started, but, if you feel less than confident in defending this, they do from time to time consider an offer to settle before court.

The figure we see quoted is £60, but a poster just a couple of days ago tried and were asked for £150 after which she was considering her next move. No further update on that.

However, she started her offer at £60, so maybe that was too high a starting point - who knows?

porter77

Thanks for the quick reply!
Are you suggesting that I contact PE, tell them (without details) that I intend to defend, but will pay them something if they drop the case (and save us all time)?

Umkomaas

porter77 wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply!
Are you suggesting that I contact PE, tell them (without details) that I intend to defend, but will pay them something if they drop the case (and save us all time)?

Something like that. Brush up on your negotiating skills before contact.

Any written offer should be headed 'Without Prejudice Save as to Costs', so they can't show this to a Judge as a tacit admission of culpability.