County court claim letter recieved

Rollingdice

Hi all,

I have received a claim form from the county by Gladstone solicitors on behalf of horizon parking for overstaying a 3hr limit at the time (now 2hrs) at Sainsburys parking 4 times by ANPR cameras on the entrance and exit of the site, they are claiming for over £700( 600+ claimed from 4 PCN each at £70 with interest, with a £60 court fee and £70 in legal fees). The 4 times are strange to me as the particulars of claim mentions the dates of the breaches of the signage which they call the 'contract' as one is in march of 2018 and 3 are all on the same day of may 2018 which I don't know how i could've received three in one day.

I received letters asking for payment from debt collectors and solicitors alike requesting payment of these fines but always ignored them thinking they would go away and wouldn't take me to court

I'm looking for advice on what i should do, I've been reading through some cases but didn't see anything very similar. I was issued on the 7th but just found the letter today. Should I file for a SAR? How should i structure my defence in this case as I have 4 PCNs being claimed against me?

Any advice is welcomed, thank you

KeithP

Gladstone Brooks?? you've been watching too much daytime television.

Are you saying the Issue Date on your Claim Form is 7th October? please confirm.

Rollingdice

Apologies i mean gladstones solicitors :rotfl:, issue date is the 7th oct 2019

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 7th October, you have until Monday 28th October 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 file linked 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 11th November 2019 to file your Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.


When you are happy with the content, your Defence could 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 "defence received". If not chase the CCBC until it is.
   
6. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire, they are just trying to keep 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.

Rollingdice

Does anyone have any advice on creating a defence? Should I pay the fine or hire a solicitor? I'm struggling with this

The_Deep

They are asking for more than the law allows, read this thread,

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten of these tickets are scams so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra work.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.[/FONT]

Rollingdice

The_Deep wrote: »

They are asking for more than the law allows, read this thread,

Is this true still regarding they charged me £70 per PCN (4 of them, 3 of which I have received on the same day which I have no idea how I could've got more than one) plus a year and half worth of interest on each one plus a court fee and legal rep costs as stated on the claim form?

Coupon-mad

600+ claimed from 4 PCN each at £70 with interest,

£70 x 4 is £280.

Look how ludicrously they have inflated that by adding £60 'damages' (fake) etc. etc.

If you don't know this then you haven't yet read enough recent defence threads!

Of course you don't pay. Of course it's worth defending.

Is it Horizon? Were you a Sainsburys customer? Did you overstay by a few minutes or park there all day and leave?

Rollingdice

I've read a lot more about this and understand this a lot better now, the abuse of process defence seems good as they are charging £140 per ticket.

Due to the tickets being a long time ago I don't have a clear memory to say what exactly happpened - However I asked gladstones to receive all evidence in relation to the case, they just sent me a copy of the LBC, but it doesn't correlate with the county court claim letter which mentions 4 PCN's, 3 of which are on the same day, the LBC shows 6 tickets all on different days. They obviously haven't done this properly and are only claiming for 4 tickets, 2 of which are obviously fake, what are my options with this? Should I call gladstones and notify them of this or would this help my defence in court? Did i do the wrong thing by asking gladstones for the evidence they have against me? Also should i ask what further evidence they have other than a LBC(pictures, timings etc?)

Thank you for the continued support in my case

Coupon-mad

Should I call gladstones

Never!

If you want to understand each PCN, send an email to the PPC themselves, using the email in their PRIVACY PAGE online, to ask their Data Protection Officer (DPO) for a SAR. An example is in the NEWBIES thread post #2 if you have not already done this.

Rollingdice

Does the 6 tickets on the LBC I have been sent mean anything with different dates as compared to the court claim I've received with only 4 tickets?

I think i remember reading something suggesting that a company must claim for all the parking tickets at once, would this be a significant error in their claim and be enough for it to get thrown out?