es parking enforcement ltd gladstone

caspermad

This is a summary of defence i submitted

The car was parked in a lane of a car park where no clear signage indicated that a permit was required, it was 21:48 at night, visibility was very low due to the heavy rain. There was no ticket machines to purchase a ticket either. This was a office car park where parking on the car park had no direct impact to the land owner or office as it was outside office hours, the car park was empty.
On receiving the Charge Notice I returned to the car park to check for signage around the car where it was parked. No Sign was on the lamppost in front of the car which can be clearly seen in the photographic evidence posted on the Parking Charge Notice.
There was one sign on the lane where the car was parked but this was obscured by shrubs and would have been impossible to see at night and in the heavy rain (See attached photographe with this letter)
On receipt of the Parking Charge Notice I emailed ES Parking Enforcement LTD to appeal the invoice but email returned undelivered. I also wrote to the company on 22nd January to dispute the invoice due to these reasons but did not receive a reply. Having not received any further communication with ES Parking Limited I assumed my letter had been received and the invoice was cancelled.
On The 08-05-18 I then had a final demand letter sent to my address. I contacted the British Parking Association (BPA) in relation to appealing the notice. They informed me that ES PARKING ENFORCEMENT LTD was “NOT” a member of their association. Alarm bells then started to ring in my head that this was a scam. I had tried to contact them, email returned undelivered, my 2nd letter had not been replied to and then I find out they are not members of the BPA which it clearly states that they are members on the bottom of the Parking Charge Notice. I believe this invoice was falsely issued to me on the premis that they were members of the BPA as far as i was concerned at this point that the whole thing was a scam and why had the DVLA released my private information to such a firm?
On the 25th September 2018 i then received a letter from Gladstone Solicitors saying they are taking legal action to recover payment for this Invoice. Stating that the charge is in connection with the clients losses, how can any losses have been incurred if there was no charge at the car park and that no impact was suffered by the business when the car was parked outside of office hours and the car park was empty and no payment method available?

Le_Kirk

That's more like a witness statement than a defence. You might be able to rescue it with a cleverly worded witness statement and presentation of evidence.

caspermad

Hello everyone

First apologies for the very late reply on this forum

I want to say huge thank you to the posters on here who gave me very informative information in being able to draft a correct defence letter and pointers in being able to fight this ticket

I can tell you now, that without the help of this forum i don't think i would have been able to fight this ticket in the way i did.

ES Parking ltd / Gladstones have now withdrawn there application just 1 week before my court date and my ticket has been cancelled.

The main point that i concentrated on was the fact that the car was photographed over a period of just 2 minutes, this did not prove that the driver did not leave the car park after the 10 mins grace period, also several signs were obstructed by shrubs.

Thank you again for everyone's input on this site and continue the good work.

If anyone would like to see my defence letter for help writing their own then do please ask

Cheers

Coupon-mad

ES Parking ltd / Gladstones have now withdrawn there application just 1 week before my court date and my ticket has been cancelled.

Yay, well done! ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!