Gladstones - Letter Before Claim...

Vitch

On the 10 Dec 15 I received a PCN for 'Unauthorised parking on 6 Dec 15' from National Parking Enforcement Ltd for parking in a Hotel Car Park in which I stayed overnight 5-6 Dec 15. I had booked and had approved (via Email confirmation) a parking booking from BookMyBay for the Hotel parking starting from 5 Dec 15 and ending 6 Dec 15.

Upon receipt of the PCN from NPE Ltd I contacted the NPE Appeals Team via Email and attached a copy of the parking booking authorisation stating that the parking had been approved from 5-6 Dec 15 and therefore I disputed their PCN and requested that it be cancelled.

I received an email back from the NPE Appeals Team on 18 Jan 16 in which they stated that 'there appears to have been a technical error with book my bay and be advised that the charge has been cancelled" and they apologised for any inconvenience caused.

However... during May-Jun 16 I received letters from Debt Recovery Plus (DRP) Ltd for Demand of Payment, Notice of intended court action and reduced payment offers. In response I sent letters back denying the debt and providing printed copies of the Emails from both Book My Bay showing confirmation of the parking booking and from NPE Appeals Team which stated that the charge had been cancelled. All of which fell on deaf ears!
The PCN was then taken up by Zenith Collections in Jul 16 and again I provided the same evidence that their Client (NPE Ltd) had cancelled the charge and that debt collection activities where not appropriate.

This continued into Aug 16 with Zenith Collections offering a 'discounted settlement' etc and finally stopped when I cited harassment under the 1997 Harassment Act as their client had cancelled the charges.

So here we are in Feb 19 and I have today received a Letter Before Claim (LBC) from Gladstones Solicitors who have been instructed by their Client (NPE Ltd) to commence legal action to recover the amount due (£160) and I have 30 days to respond from 19 Feb 19.

I have all of the paper correspondence sent and emails have been electronically saved so any ideas out there as to where I go with this now? (I am happy to take this to court if needs be as I firmly believe the charge has been cancelled by NPE Ltd but what do I need to do to prepare if it goes this far?)

Vitch.

Redx

reply to GLADRAGS with a rebuttal and clearly state that the claimant dropped the case and attach copies of the paperwork to show this to be true and to cease and desist forthwith

send the DPO at NPE a SAR as well, plus tell them to cease and desist and attach a copy of the cancellation and tell them to delete all your data from their database immediately and to tell gladrags to cancel the claim as well

copy your own address into the email address bar when emailing them , so you get a copy as well


keep copies of all correspondence etc, and a timeline of events

Coupon-mad

Make it a strong response, saying you will counter-claim against NPE for misuse of your DVLA data, for sharing CANCELLED PCN data illegally with debt collectors and using data that should have long since been erased, to harass you.

State that you intend to counter-claim for £750 for this data abuse, as it has wasted many hours of your time, and their conduct is contrary to the Protection from Harassment Act and the KADOE (DVLA rules) as well as the Data Protection Act. Significant distress has been caused and they mus finally cease and desist, cancel the PCN and apologise.

Give them a clear time to do that (say 14 days) and again attach your evidence.

Tell them if they cancel and NPE writes a letter of apology (not Gladstones) within that time then you will allow the matter to be concluded and will not seek your counterclaim nor costs. If they proceed, you will eek costs on the indemnity basis for a clear case of abuse of process and a failure to properly consider evidence supplied within the relevant period provided under the PAP for Debt claims.

Use any Gladstones email addies you find by searching this forum. No wasting a stamp.