ES Parking Enforcement Limited - County Court Claim - I paid for parking

dp543

Hi


I have received a County Court Claim from ES Parking Enforcement Limited.


I want to defend myself for this fine - but before I do so I would like some advice on what you think is my best approach here. In hindsight, I wish I would have followed the appeals process but instead a refused to pay the fine. Background below:


I paid for parking on the car park in Warrington last year and I displayed by ticket. I never went over the stated time but the ticket I paid must have fell off my dashboard as I found it on the floor of my car when I returned. ES Parking stated that I had to use their online form to submit an appeal, I did and supplied a copy of the ticket saying it had fallen off and I did pay for parking. I received a response from them saying I did not pay and display correctly so I am still liable to pay the fine.


I went back again and said I did pay and display, they did not provide anything sticky to put on my windscreen and so it must have fallen off. Since then I was ignored, then I received a Gladstones solicitors letter and now this County Court Claim.


Do I have leg to stand on to fight this? I'm trying to find the old copy of the parking ticket I paid for but I'm worried I have lost the picture as I now have a new mobile. I would pay a fine if I thought I was in the wrong here but I paid for parking. Unfortunately my appeal was submitted via ES parking form and they don't send you a copy of you submitted response. I am wondering now if I can request this from ES Parking.


Any advice on how I should deal with this/ have a chance on defending myself.

KeithP

Hi and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Did it come from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton, or from somewhere else?

Coupon-mad

Any advice on how I should deal with this/ have a chance on defending myself.

Do you mean, apart from the wealth of info on how to win a defended PPC claim, in post #2 of NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST?

What are your queries that are not covered there, after you've done the AOS as shown?

dp543

Hi,


Thanks for responding so quickly.


Yes it came from County Court Business Centre North Hampton. The issue date is 20 February 2019. I have just come back from holiday to receive this.


My concern is that I responded via ES parking online form saying I did pay and display, my ticket had fallen off and here is the proof. But I know from other forums it says never say you were in the vehicle just that you are the registered keeper. I have admitted to parking in the appeals form though I never received a copy of my submission via email (which is annoying) just a response from ES Parking saying tough you didn't display the ticket properly.


I am worried now I can't find the original ticket my defence is looking a little weak. ES Parking will have received the photo of my paid parking ticket, but I doubt they will allow me to have this information as part of my own defence.

Coupon-mad

No different than defending any other case. Half the people here win and admitted to driving.

It's a fluttering ticket defence like you will find several times over, when you search the forum.

KeithP

dp543 wrote: »

Yes it came from County Court Business Centre North Hampton. The issue date is 20 February 2019.

With a Claim Issue Date of 20th February, you have until Monday 11th March to do the Acknowledgement of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. To do the AoS, follow the guidance offered in a Dropbox link from post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread. About ten minutes work - no thinking required.

Having done the AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 25th March 2019 to file your Defence.

That's a month away. Loads of time to produce a perfect Defence, but don't leave it to the very last minute.


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

Print your Defence.
1. Sign it and date it.
   
2. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
3. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
   
4. 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'.
   
5. Log into MCOL after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defended". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive a copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to put you under pressure.
   
7. Wait for your DQ from the CCBC, or download one from the internet, and then re-read post #2 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread to find out exactly what to do with it.

KeithP

dp543 wrote: »

ES Parking will have received the photo of my paid parking ticket, but I doubt they will allow me to have this information as part of my own defence.

They will if you send their Data Protection Officer a Subject Access Request.

There is guidance on how to do that - together with a link to a template - in post #2 of the NEWBIES thread.

Please don't ask for a link to the NEWBIES thread. There are two already in this thread.

dp543

Good evening,

Thankyou very much for you help so far.

I submitted a SAR request to ES Parking Enforcement Ltd. They have yet to acknowledge this request.

Similarly, I sent a email to Gladstones stating that I have sent a SAR to ES Parking and kindly asked them to stop processing my data - they have refused.

I have gone online to submit a response that I wish to defend myself.

I have completed a first draft of my response. Thankfully I was able to locate the letter response back from ES Parking about my appeal where they did confirm that I have paid for parking so I have used this in my defence below.

I'd appreciate any advice/comments on the below defense. (I'm not sure if I am going into too much detail too soon).

IN THE COUNTY COURT

CLAIM No: xxxxxxxxxx

BETWEEN:

ES Parking Enforcement Ltd (Claimant)

-and-

xxxxxxxxxxxx (Defendant)

________________________________________
DEFENCE
1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.

2. The facts are that the vehicle, registration XXXX, of which the Defendant is the registered keeper, paid for the car parking for correct time-period and did not exceed the time-period that was paid for. The parking ticket purchased did not contain any sticky backing to display on a car window or dashboard, but the defendant did still display the ticket in her car. When the defendant appealed the claim, providing evidence of the purchased ticket the claimant refused to accept this evidence. The defendant followed up again with another appeal, but this was ignored by the claimant.
Instead of responding to the defendants appeal the claimant issued their standard chaser letter and solicitors letter to the defendant and did not try and resolve the claim based on the facts provided.
3. The Particulars of Claim state that the Defendant XXX was the registered keeper and/or the driver of the vehicle(s) XXX and that the driver agreed to pay the PCN charge within 28 days of issue and yet has failed to do so. At no time during this process has the driver agreed to pay the PCN charge.

Again, the claimant is not providing a defence based on the actual particulars of the parking event and instead is using generic wording issued to all parking tickets claims.

4. Due to the lack of information in the particulars, the legal basis for the claim is unclear, whether for breach of contract, contractual liability, or trespass. However, it is denied that the Defendant, or any driver of the vehicle, entered into any contractual agreement with the Claimant, whether express, implied, or by conduct.

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, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.

6. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim includes an additional £60, for which no calculation or explanation is given, and which appears to be an attempt at double recovery. In addition, a further sum of £8.78 statutory interest pursuant to the County Courts Act at 8.00% per annum, continuing at £0.04 per day. The basis for this statutory interest is unfounded as no payment is due.

7. The claimant confirmed in their response to the defendants appeal that the defendant did correctly pay for car parking and did not exceed the time limit.

8. Further to 7. The claimant does not provide the correct ticketing format for tickets to be displayed correctly without the risk of it moving or falling off a windscreen. No sticky tickets were issued, and the material of the paper was thin and could easily fall off or be moved when closing a car door.

9. The claimant stated in their response to the defendants appeal, that the signage in the car park clearly states that you must “pay and display your ticket at the front of your windscreen”. It is denied that the claimant's signage set out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them.

10. 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.

11. The Claimant has not complied with the pre-court protocol:
a. No information has been provided regarding the list of the documents that will be relied upon in court.
c. No information has been provided regarding any funding arrangement (within the meaning of rule 43.2(1)(k) of the CPR) that has been entered into by the claimant.
e. No clear basis for the reason for the claim was provided.

12. It is suggested by the defendant that parking companies using the small claims process as a form of aggressive debt collection is not something the courts should be seen to sustenance.

13. In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4.


Many thanks !

dp543

Hi - I received a response form the data protection officer about my documents. I feel a little uneasy about part of their reply when I chased up a missing PCN document and my original appeal (see below).

"The original data that came from DVLA is not attached to the individual PCN, as the data that is shipped includes multiple vehicles. The system automatically loads the individual vehicles data into each PCN

I have manually recreated each document that is in the system, and I think there was a couple that had not been created last time."

It sounds like my documents have been recreated now? I went back to confirm but they have now backtracked on what they have said in the first email and said they are originals.

Is this something I should be concerned about?

Redx

if you have named yourself as driver (which appears to be the case when you appealed the windscreen ticket) then the NTK issues are not relevant, because they invoiced you on site (didnt need any DVLA data when you appealed) , never mind if they issued anything since, but it makes me wonder what else is missing

they should have given you copies of your appeal and the appeal photograph of the ticket you purchased, plus a PDT record of the ticket purchase, plus a copy of the windscreen ticket (all your data)

so I would ensure they supply these if they havent already, because your case is commonly known as a "fluttering ticket" case, so should be defended as such

dp543

Okay great thank you! - I will go back and ask about the PDT record.