Smart parking/gladstones

Fairjs8

After ignoring months of debt collectors demands,I have received a letter from Gladstones claiming payment of £160,and threatening court action ,without specifying their case.
Basically my crime!! Is that the ticket machine only printed the last 3 digits of my registration.
I am 76 years of age and in remission after treatment for Lukaemia. In spite of my determination to stop these people from robbing me,my wife doesn’t want me to undergo the stress and work involved in defending a court action against a legal representative hired by Gladstones.
I would appreciate your views.

Fruitcake

What did you put in your original appeal to the scammers? Did you get a PoPLA code?

Parking scammers are known to deliberately attack the vulnerable including people with disabilities (Not so Smart have form for this) as well as people parking at hospital cancer wards.

Assuming this is not Gladrags acting as debt crawlers, follow the guide to court written by bargepole that you will find in post 2 of the NEWBIES.

This will take you from LBC right up to the court appearance.

Have you complained to your MP yet?

What happened when you complained to the landowner?

The_Deep

Read what an MP said recent about Smart Parking in the House of Commons

Pete Wishart (SNP, Perth):

"I am sick and tired of receiving emails from people complaining about the behaviour of parking companies, telling me that they will never again visit Perth city centre because of the negative experience they had when they had the misfortune to end up in a car park operated by one of these companies. I have received more complaints about one car park in the city of Perth than about any other issue. That car park is operated by the lone ranger of the parking cowboys: the hated and appalling Smart Parking—I see that many other Members are unfortunate enough to have Smart Parking operating in their constituencies. It has reached the stage where one member of my staff now spends a good part of each day just helping my constituents and visitors to my constituency to navigate the appeals process.
…
The BPA does not have the ability to regulate these companies and has shown no sign whatsoever that it is trying to get on top of some of the sharper practices. The BPA gives a veneer of legitimacy to some of the more outlandish rogue operators by including them in their membership, allowing them to continue to operate. The Bill will oblige operators such as Smart Parking to amend their practices."

and get your MP on side.

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 become so widespread that MPs agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Hopefully, this will become law by Easter .

beamerguy

Fairjs8 wrote: »

After ignoring months of debt collectors demands,I have received a letter from Gladstones claiming payment of £160,and threatening court action ,without specifying their case.
Basically my crime!! Is that the ticket machine only printed the last 3 digits of my registration.
I am 76 years of age and in remission after treatment for Lukaemia. In spite of my determination to stop these people from robbing me,my wife doesn’t want me to undergo the stress and work involved in defending a court action against a legal representative hired by Gladstones.
I would appreciate your views.

Let us put your mind at rest.

The letter you received from Gladstones is probably asking you pay DRP ...... Gladstones have no respect for their name because they pimp out their letterhead ..... similar to WONGA.

You do not owe £160, the moron debt collectors added £60 as a further scam to line their pockets

This is now common with parking scammers about the number of digits entered and it seems this is now a designed method to scam people out of £100 ?

Smart are scammers ... period .. but as we know on here, they are not smart .... the opposite infact.

So, you can assume that Smart has now stolen your money, do you still have that ticket ???

Who do this incompetent solicitor ask you to pay ???

Coupon-mad

Go and see your MP and get them to write to Smart Parking.

Does the letter talk about making payment to Debt Recovery plus? If so then it's not really from any solicitor's desk and is just DRP renting letter heading.

Fairjs8

Thanks for your response.The letter does ask for payment to DRP,and yes I do still have the ticket. When I received Smarts original demand I went back to the car park and spoke to the man employed to supervise the site.He told me that many people had a similar experience to me relating to the full registration not being printed on the ticket.The ticket machine could be rigged to default every so often!! How can they prove the machine is not faulty? If I was going to court I would request details of the frequency in their records of similar attempts to extract money in this way!!
I know I have a defensible case but my concern is their apparent willingness to take people to court with such frequency using a dodgy solicitor.Will they decide to pursue me in the courts?,and if so why?,as it seems to me the only people guaranteed to win are Gladstones.
What has the courts response been when similar cases to mine ha be been put before them?
Thanks again for your initial response. Look forward to your views on the above
Regard

KeithP

So anyone reading this thread now knows your full name.

You would be wise to correct that as soon as possible.

Fruitcake

It's a debt collector letter then and can be ignored.

We cannot predict whether Not so Smart will ty court in the next six years, and if they do, we cannot predict what a judge might determine.

MSE does however have an extremely good success rate where a forum assisted defence has been used.

You have been asked a number of other questions that you have not yet answered. It would help us to help you if you could do this.

beamerguy

Fairjs8 wrote: »

Thanks for your response.The letter does ask for payment to DRP,and yes I do still have the ticket. When I received Smarts original demand I went back to the car park and spoke to the man employed to supervise the site.He told me that many people had a similar experience to me relating to the full registration not being printed on the ticket.The ticket machine could be rigged to default every so often!! How can they prove the machine is not faulty? If I was going to court I would request details of the frequency in their records of similar attempts to extract money in this way!!
I know I have a defensible case but my concern is their apparent willingness to take people to court with such frequency using a dodgy solicitor.Will they decide to pursue me in the courts?,and if so why?,as it seems to me the only people guaranteed to win are Gladstones.
What has the courts response been when similar cases to mine ha be been put before them?
Thanks again for your initial response. Look forward to your views on the above
Regards

Good you retained your receipt

It's up to Smart to prove their machines are working not you
Interesting that the man in car park said it was happening to others. We suspect this is a hidden scam

Even more reason to say that Smart has stolen your money

Gladstones are just a simple simon company who send "wet behind the ears" legals to court ..... be honest with you, they are not very good, infact they are useless

Have you seen this about Smart ?? ...... they were kicked out
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5973464/not-so-smart-parking-lose-contract

Next communication will be the wide boys ... Gladstones. You will get a letter before claim which MUST give you proof of their claim
and 30 DAYS TO RESPOND.

That's when the fun begins as you will be asking for proof about the machine and most of all that SMART STOLE YOUR MONEY

Fairjs8

Thanks for your response.Do you know what their success/failure rate is for my situation.When I returned to the car park after receiving the fine from Smart.The person they employed there said he had spoken to many people who had a similar experience.I can’t see what Smart have to gain by taking me to court,especially if their success rate is low.The only people to benefit are Gladstones.
If I ignore thi latest letter purporting to be from Gladstones ,but requesting payment to DRP what do you think will follow?Will they take me to court??
Regards

Coupon-mad

You need to hit edit under your post #6 above, and remove your name!

Smart are unlikely to do court but I think Gladstones have done a couple recently, in some rare cases. At this stage Gladstones have not even looked at it, as that letter is not 'from' them really.

No need to reply to a DRP letter, which that one is. No ringing them, promise!

If you get a real LBC with reply forms, giving you 30 days, come back and we'll help.