Parking Charge Notice issued at Sennen Cove Beach car park for not displaying a valid ticket

Grungewart

Hi all,

On 28/05/19 I received a Parking Charge Notice in very similar circumstances to 69jase on thread 5911830

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5911830&highlight=sennen

It won't let me put the actual link there because it's my first post.

Possibly significant differences I think are;

1. The ticket was stuck to the window rather than laid on the dashboard, but had obviously peeled away at some point during the day
2. There was no parking attendant around when I returned to the vehicle and discvered the notice.
3. I consulted legal advise via the union before google pointed me here. They suggested appealing through the IAS if a direct appeal to Armtrac was unsuccessful so unfortunately I've wasted time on that rigmarole in addition to the Armtrac appeal. No surprise that both were rejected. The muppet at the IAS evidently hadn't even read my appeal properly because his comments didn't make proper sense.

I've had much the same experience other than that, ignored everything so far and now reached the "Your case has been passed to bwlegal" stage, followed by letter from them giving me 28 days to cough up including their fees before they start court action.

Given that the pirates at Sennen stung me once before like this, back in the days when they had clamps and I had to pay up to get the car so we could go home (and ticket machines were cash so couldn't prove I'd bought one) I'm not planning on giving them a penny this time unless a judge tells me otherwise.

I've complained to my MP, got a very quick initial response and subsequent follow-up but obviously other events have overtaken us there and I won't have an MP for the next month (and it might be a different one after that).

As with the earlier thread, I paid by card, I can provide a bank statement showing a transaction, the ticket shows partial reg, Armtrac claim they can't verify my side because they've got no access to the ticket machine records.

I'll have a proper read through the thread at the weekend (got a bit lost in some of the legal wording, it's a bit late at night) but any suggestions gratefully revceived.

Coupon-mad

Given that the pirates at Sennen stung me once before like this, back in the days when they had clamps and I had to pay up to get the car so we could go home (and ticket machines were cash so couldn't prove I'd bought one) I'm not planning on giving them a penny this time unless a judge tells me otherwise.

Awful to read you were a clamping victim before it was criminalised, but glad to hear your resolve not to pay this!

I paid by card, I can provide a bank statement showing a transaction, the ticket shows partial reg, Armtrac claim they can't verify my side because they've got no access to the ticket machine records.

Wait, they reckon they haven't got access to their own machine data? Ask one more time (no phone calls of course) and tell them you are about to report them to the Information Commissioner if they continue to refuse to interrogate the PDT machine data.

Grungewart

That's what they're claiming, I got the same generic response as the earlier thread. “As Armtrac Security Services are not the landowner we have no access to the pay and display machines on site in order to be able to check serial numbers on tickets and as already stated the only way our Patrol Officers are able to ascertain if a vehicle has permission to park is by them being able to inspect all the details on the ticket for validity at the time of inspection”.


Machines are apparently administered by the harbour authority. Next step I think is a complaint to them.


Unfortunately (because I'd done two stages of appeal before coming here) I've already admitted to being driver but I'm not the keeper as the car is my wife's so missed a trick there. Also didn't use the standard appeal template provided here because I hadn't seen it at that point.

Grungewart

Ah. Just checking the letters I've got from bwlegal. Looks like the latest one is the Letter of Claim giving me until 29/11 to respond so I guess that means I'm reading post #2 from Newbies FAQ at the weekend and following instructions.

nosferatu1001

Yep
One of which will be - the ticket wa spaid for, s ono breach of any contract occurred. That Armtrac could not be bothered to verify the ticket was valid does not give them cause to raise a claim.

The_Deep

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

Grungewart

And finally got the County Court letter today, after having it hand redelivered by someone from up the road because it was delivered to his house by mistake.  Not sure where we'd have stood there if he hadn't been able to find our house (or had been away).

Redx

Post the issue date from the claim form below

Do not do the AOS yet

Grungewart

03/11/2020

KeithP

Grungewart said:

03/11/2020

With a Claim Issue Date of 3rd November, you have until Monday 23rd November to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS, you have until 4pm on Monday 7th December 2020 to file your Defence.

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

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.

Grungewart

OK. As said earlier in the thread I admited I was the driver before I found this site so missed that trick, I think defence will be based on their charge being unreasonable when I actually had a ticket.

Thanks.