Armtrac Parking Scam at Sennen Cove Harbour Car Park

KeithP

cjos wrote: »

Sorry about the numbering being all haywire . I don't know what's happened there.

Feel free to edit your post at any time if you want to make it more readable.


Be warned : copying directly from MSWord etc to this forum is likely to lead to your IP address being banned. Copy via notepad to avoid this.

See here:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5706338

Coupon-mad

breech

Misspelling above.

And you don't attach any evidence to the defence. That comes a fair bit later.

You need to re-read the KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN section of the NEWBIES thread and bargepole's thread linked there 'Court Procedures'

And your headings should be like all the other KBT Cornwall defences, there are half a dozen on here and you need to make sure you have the right Defendant name and headings.

cjos

Thank you guys for your comments etc. I made the necessary adjustments to my defence and sent it to the Crown Court by post on May 28th. The deadline wasn't until June 5th. I didn't want to risk it all going wrong online ( I'm not very computer literate). I received an aknowledgement from the court on June 1st and by the same post another threatening letter from B W Legal accusing me of failing to respond and demanding that I pay them £241.20. They seem to have jumped the gun by a whole week there !

Coupon-mad

Yes, we've seen that threatogram before. Put a copy in your case file now, ready to show the Judge as part of your list of 'unreasonable conduct' when you claim costs, and push for higher (indemnity) costs, when you win.

sent it to the Crown Court

You mean CCBC, it's just a central admin point, not the Crown Court.

See the NEWBIES thread and bargepole's post about Court Procedures, from now.

cjos

Thank you guys for the encouragement and putting me on the right track. I finally went to court at Warwick well prepared on November 27th 2019 . KBT Cornwall were represented by a solicitor. District Judge Edden dismissed the claim and ordered that KBT Cornwall pay my expenses.

beamerguy

cjos wrote: »

Thank you guys for the encouragement and putting me on the right track. I finally went to court at Warwick well prepared on November 27th 2019 . KBT Cornwall were represented by a solicitor. District Judge Edden dismissed the claim and ordered that KBT Cornwall pay my expenses.

Well done, if you could kindly do a court report which will help others

Umkomaas

Well done @cjos, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST.

When you get back down to earth, could you give us a short court report please? What happened, how did the PPC's solicitor perform, what did the Judge say, etc ......

It really will help us, and others who eventually tread this same rocky path to understand reasons why Judges send private parking companies packing with a flea in their ears (and a bill for your expenses in their pocket! ).

Redx

Well done

It seems that the following 3 companies or trade bodies were wrong then ? Lol

Armtrac KBT who rejected the initial appeal even though they had their parking ticket money , so I assume Dr minimis applied ?

The IAS who upheld the rejection on appeal

B W Legal who were foolish enough to pursue the lost cause

Thank goodness common sense and justice prevailed

elwarburton

Hi,

Could you please please write a short summary of what happened as I am about to go to court as my ticket on the dashboard blew over in the wind in Sennen carpark and I would like to know what grounds the Amtrack claim was thrown out on.

Thanks very much - I know you would probably want to put this all behind you now but if you could help others like you were helped that would be ace.

Thanks so much

cjos

Sorry that it has taken me so long but here is my short report of what happened in court  :

First I had to sit and listen while the solicitor for BW Legal kept repeating that I had contravened the Armtrac terms and conditions and that it was therefore clear that That I must pay this £100 parking charge which 18 months later I was still refusing to pay.  Then it was my turn to speak.

The judge made it clear that he was only interested in hearing about the case in hand, so I didn't use much of what I had prepared in reply to BW legal's witness statement. The points that I did raise are as follows :

1.   Armtrac claim that their signs are easy to understand and that their terms and conditions are clearly displayed. This is not the case. I included in my evidence a photo (which I found online) of an actual sign in the harbour car park. The sign does not say what this £100 charge is for. It does not clearly state that it is for failing to meet the terms and conditions  and more to the point it doesn't state that the motorist must pay this £100 charge if the pay and display ticket becomes dislodged ( due to weather conditions or whatever) while he is away from the car .  Also the terms and conditions have been deliberately made very difficult to read (white letters on a red background and small font).

If the signs were easy to read and were not confusing , motorists might be encouraged to display their tickets more securely.......and that would not be in Armtrac's interest because Armtrac make a lot of money from these contrived contraventions. 

I did display my ticket properly and cannot be held responsible for what happened to it during my absence unless the sign makes it clear in plain English that I will be...........and it doesn't. I did not knowingly agree to pay £100 to these people if the ticket should somehow fall from the wind screen whilst we were away from the car .

2.  It states on the sign "Retrospective authority to park will not be accepted" . Surely it is wrong not to allow the defendant to use their pay and display ticket as proof that they did pay and display..........just because Armtrac say so as this is an integral part of their scam. I still have my pay and display ticket . I did in fact email a photo of it to Armtrac later that same day.

3.  I noticed and brought to the judge's attention that BW legal had included in their evidence,  details, documents and a collection of poor quality signage photos  for the WRONG car park (Armtrac have two car parks at Sennen Cove). I had parked in the Harbour car park and they had sent the stuff for the Beach car park.

The judge then asked me several questions to satisfy himself that I had in fact purchased a ticket and displayed it.

In his summing up the judge agreed with what I had said . He called the sign  ambiguous.He dismissed the claim and said that he would have done so even if BW legal had submitted photos for the right car park.

I hope that somebody else find this usefull. I have read that " fluttering tickets" are a regular occurance at Sennen Cove.