Excel Parking ticket

CasperEcho3434

Castle wrote: »

Can we just confirm that Excel are chasing you and not your Grandpa?

They are chasing me, apologies I should have clarified that.

CasperEcho3434

Coupon-mad wrote: »

The fact the ticketer knew that a passenger in the car was disabled, means that they have broken the law by continuing to try to use contract law, which is trumped by the Equality Act 2010.

You need to reply to Excel, firstly asking for the notes made by the ticketer regarding the event and the personal data (VRN and any other details) processed at that point. It is clear that notes were made because Excel have referred to those notes, and these very much include your personal data and that of the passenger. If the employee had been properly trained in the Equality Act 2010, which it appears he was not and Excel have failed in this regard, he must have noted the Blue Badge shown to him.

Add that you will be asking for that employee to be called in person as a witness in court to answer for their conduct which was in clear breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Here you go, adapt this one I wrote ages ago:

Show us your version of that and change the wording to include this:

Should Excel proceed against the carer of a disabled passenger, a counter-claim for compensation for distress in a sum not less than £500, citing unwarranted harassment, for which the authorities are Blamires, and Ferguson v British Gas. Whilst it is noted that section 1(3)(c) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 states that a course of conduct that someone alleges to be harassment will not be deemed so if the legal person who pursued it shows that the pursuit of the course of conduct was 'reasonable', in this case (where even the ticketer knew or should have known that the passenger was protected by the Equality Act 2010 from day one) that justification will not fly.

In addition, regardless of other legislation, the Equality Act 2010 creates an offence of harassment arising from discrimination (inherent to that Act alone) and that offence is made out.

I would like to draw your attention to a judgment at the Leeds County Court, 3SP00071 - Blamires v LGO. This was a claim for damages including a matter of a breach of the DPA, for which an award of £2,500 was granted as compensation for distress. As is now relatively well known, the DPA’s original drafting appeared to preclude compensation for distress alone, but the Court of Appeal, in Vidal Hall & ors v Google [2015] EWCA Civ 311, it was held that this was contrary to the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and that, accordingly, there was a right under the DPA to claim compensation for ''pure'' distress.

Further, Excel need to take note that ''distress'' is now included under Article 82 of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and (ironically, like parking charges) is not dependent upon showing 'loss'. Given the indisputable fact that your unwarranted harassment flows from data wrongfully obtained from the DVLA and illegally processed in a case where Excel 'knew, or should have known' that you were running in breach of disability legislation, I will also be relying upon the GDPR and DPA 2018 in support of my counterclaim.

The award in Blamires was of “Vidal Hall” compensation, with the judge saying there was ''no doubt in my mind that the data breaches have caused distress to the claimant in their own rights as well as as a result of the consequences that flowed.'' The judge awarded a further £2,500 aggravated damages because of the manner in which the Defendant conducted its case, including the fact that, notwithstanding being told by the Claimant that its conduct/data was wrong, it took nearly two years for the Defendant to admit the mistake.

It is unacceptable for Excel - as a Service Provider with statutory duties to avoid disadvantaging disabled users of car parks - to disregard those duties in law by saying ''with regards to our Patrol Officers, it is not their responsibility to advise motorists on the Terms and Conditions in place. They are employed to solely issue PCNs to vehicles in breach of the Terms and Conditions.''

I wish to correct your misunderstanding of the law. Service providers and their employees and agents, do have further responsibilities and are not allowed to disregard the Equality Act and if they do, then a victim and their carer can seek compensation for harassment, distress and disadvantage of any description, caused by the trader's actions.

Contract law is trumped by the Equality Act 2010, as well as the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and it seems Excel's staff need retraining. This is similar to the case already tested in court in Excel v Greenwood 3QT60496 4/10/13 and it it shameful that Excel are still hounding carers and disabled people over six years after that case.

I look forward to hearing that you have finally cancelled this charge and I am copying in your client, the landowners at this location, who remain liable for Excel's illegal conduct and also stand to be sued under the same legislation.

yours faithfully,


Your Name (assuming you are the keeper and they are writing to YOU, not Grandad)?

The ticket is against me, yes.

I am not the carer of my grandpa, I was just driving him around, does that make me a carer to an extent?

I was not sure which parts to switch around as I am very unfamiliar with this type of writing so I just added this to the start of it, I am sure I will need to tweak more, if you can offer any guidance I will really appreciate that.

"I am writing to you about a parking ticket that I received on the 2nd of December 2019 in which I received a parking ticket due to using a Disabled Parking Spot with a person of disability in my car that suffers from severe renal failure.

Notes were made by the ticketer regarding the event that took place and personal data and any other details. Any data that has been processed, I am requesting a copy of such data as this is important considering your employee issued a PSN that included lies such as the driver drove away before taking a final photograph, as is untrue as ticketer chose to walk away from the car after taking a suitable 5 photos and confronted with proof of blue badge. I will also be calling for the ticketer as a suspect in court if it goes that far."

Also, do I email them this or post? I can not find a contact email, which seems to be on purpose to discourage people from fighting back perhaps but they do have a "send us a question" area on there page but I can imagine how useful that is.

I tried to contact Cineworld but they said:

"Thank you for contacting Cineworld.

I am sorry to hear that you have encountered problems with parking near Cineworld Middlesbrough.

I can advise that Cineworld does not operate the Parking facility of this venue. Unfortunately, there are a couple of free car parks near the cinema, therefore we are not able to answer about the owner of each one.

If you have any further comments or inquiries please feel free to contact our Unlimited Helpline on 0330 333 4444 (UK) or 0818 304 204 (ROI), we are open from 9 am - 10 pm, 7 days a week."

I tried contacting the email through the Middlesbrough leisure park site but no luck from that area either, should I try a letter or will that probably end up in the trash? I have sent them two emails since December about the ticket but it feels like I am being ignored.


information that could be useful is that I am 23 years of age and I study at the local University.

Fruitcake

CasperEcho3434 wrote: »

The ticket is against me, yes.

I am not the carer of my grandpa, I was just driving him around, does that make me a carer to an extent?

I was not sure which parts to switch around as I am very unfamiliar with this type of writing so I just added this to the start of it, I am sure I will need to tweak more, if you can offer any guidance I will really appreciate that.

"I am writing to you about a parking ticket that I received on the 2nd of December 2019 in which I received a parking ticket due to using a Disabled Parking Spot with a person of disability in my car that suffers from severe renal failure.

Notes were made by the ticketer regarding the event that took place and personal data and any other details. Any data that has been processed, I am requesting a copy of such data as this is important considering your employee issued a PSN that included lies such as the driver drove away before taking a final photograph, as is untrue as ticketer chose to walk away from the car after taking a suitable 5 photos and confronted with proof of blue badge. I will also be calling for the ticketer as a suspect in court if it goes that far."

Also, do I email them this or post? I can not find a contact email, which seems to be on purpose to discourage people from fighting back perhaps but they do have a "send us a question" area on there page but I can imagine how useful that is.

I tried to contact Cineworld but they said:

"Thank you for contacting Cineworld.

I am sorry to hear that you have encountered problems with parking near Cineworld Middlesbrough.

I can advise that Cineworld does not operate the Parking facility of this venue. Unfortunately, there are a couple of free car parks near the cinema, therefore we are not able to answer about the owner of each one.

If you have any further comments or inquiries please feel free to contact our Unlimited Helpline on 0330 333 4444 (UK) or 0818 304 204 (ROI), we are open from 9 am - 10 pm, 7 days a week."

I tried contacting the email through the Middlesbrough leisure park site but no luck from that area either, should I try a letter or will that probably end up in the trash? I have sent them two emails since December about the ticket but it feels like I am being ignored.


information that could be useful is that I am 23 years of age and I study at the local University.

I wouldn't put anything at the beginning of C-m's draft but insert comments where relevant or at the end. The idea is to first set out your stall to the scammers so they know straight away that this is an EA and DPA case.
Add and remove as you go but make sure the sense of it isn't changed.

Say where relevant that their employee was made aware an occupant was a disabled person covered by the EA 2010 and that their employee subsequently made statements that were not true and you will be calling him as a witness in accordance with Part 33 of the Miscellaneous Rules for Evidence of the Civil Court Practice. You will require their operative to produce their written and electronic notes taken at the time of the alleged event.
If Grandpa is up to it he is entitled to be a witness himself and the same Part 33 applies.

It's quite simple and can be found here for reference.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part33

On the date in question you were acting as your Grandpa's carer. It doesn't have to be in any official capacity and you don't need to be receiving Carer's Allowance. A person may have or pay for more than one carer.
You can always word the statement that you were acting as temporary carer, or just that he was in your care whilst he was with you, or simply that you were looking after a disabled family member.

Send a separate SAR as per the NEWBIES to the scammers' DPO requesting all personal data they hold about you including employee's notes taken at the time.

Send by email and take a screen grab.
Also send it by post, sent first class from a Post Office counter and obtain the all important free proof of posting. Do not use any form of signed for method.
Take photos of the letter(s) spread out on a table next to the SAE being used before putting it in the envelope, and of course keep copies of everything before you send it.

Do a forum search for Excel email or email address, setting the criteria to Show Posts.
If you can't find an email address you could use the Send Us A Question option from the Contact button on their home page. Take a screen grab or photo before you submit it, and take a screen grab/photo and make a note of any confirmation/reference number.

Include the VRM and PCN number as well as your name in all correspondence. I'm not sure if you are doing this as Driver, or Keeper, or both, but I think the latter is the best option in this instance.
If the scammers already know the identity of the driver then it doesn't matter.

Your final comment of age and occupation makes no difference to the case. However, you might find it a useful life and educational experience that will help you in the future.

By the way, good for you for looking after your Grandpa and taking him out. Too many families can't be bothered and expect someone else to do it for them.

CasperEcho3434

Fruitcake wrote: »

I wouldn't put anything at the beginning of C-m's draft but insert comments where relevant or at the end. The idea is to first set out your stall to the scammers so they know straight away that this is an EA and DPA case.
Add and remove as you go but make sure the sense of it isn't changed.

Say where relevant that their employee was made aware an occupant was a disabled person covered by the EA 2010 and that their employee subsequently made statements that were not true and you will be calling him as a witness in accordance with Part 33 of the Miscellaneous Rules for Evidence of the Civil Court Practice. You will require their operative to produce their written and electronic notes taken at the time of the alleged event.
If Grandpa is up to it he is entitled to be a witness himself and the same Part 33 applies.

It's quite simple and can be found here for reference.



On the date in question you were acting as your Grandpa's carer. It doesn't have to be in any official capacity and you don't need to be receiving Carer's Allowance. A person may have or pay for more than one carer.
You can always word the statement that you were acting as temporary carer, or just that he was in your care whilst he was with you, or simply that you were looking after a disabled family member.

Send a separate SAR as per the NEWBIES to the scammers' DPO requesting all personal data they hold about you including employee's notes taken at the time.

Send by email and take a screen grab.
Also send it by post, sent first class from a Post Office counter and obtain the all important free proof of posting. Do not use any form of signed for method.
Take photos of the letter(s) spread out on a table next to the SAE being used before putting it in the envelope, and of course keep copies of everything before you send it.

Do a forum search for Excel email or email address, setting the criteria to Show Posts.
If you can't find an email address you could use the Send Us A Question option from the Contact button on their home page. Take a screen grab or photo before you submit it, and take a screen grab/photo and make a note of any confirmation/reference number.

Include the VRM and PCN number as well as your name in all correspondence. I'm not sure if you are doing this as Driver, or Keeper, or both, but I think the latter is the best option in this instance.
If the scammers already know the identity of the driver then it doesn't matter.

Your final comment of age and occupation makes no difference to the case. However, you might find it a useful life and educational experience that will help you in the future.

By the way, good for you for looking after your Grandpa and taking him out. Too many families can't be bothered and expect someone else to do it for them.

Hello, Thankyou for taking the time to help me and for the nice comment at the end.

I added this part from the beginning that CM kindly written for me, I want to include my grandpa but I am going to ask him first before I send it off tomorrow as him being a witness is probably important.

"Should Excel proceed against the of a disabled passenger, a counter-claim for compensation for distress in a sum not less than £500, citing unwarranted harassment, for which the authorities are Blamires, and Ferguson v British Gas. Whilst it is noted that section 1(3)(c) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 states that a course of conduct that someone alleges to be harassment will not be deemed so if the legal person who pursued it shows that the pursuit of the course of conduct was 'reasonable', in this case (where even the ticketer knew or should have known that the passenger was protected by the Equality Act 2010 from day one) that justification will not fly. Due to untrue statements such as When digitally recording the contravention, the PO noted “driver drove vehicle away whilst issuing p.c.n unable to take final photograph.” Made by your employee and your employee choosing to walk away when a Blue Badge was shown, displaying a disabled person in the car, in accordance with Part 33 of the Miscellaneous Rules for Evidence of the Civil Court Practice, I will be calling him as a witness."

I wrote a separate SAR from the template you included also.

CasperEcho3434

As Coupon Mad helped me with, I added a small bit about the ticketer lying at the start,

As I have already tried to appeal stupidly through their own site and IAS , they know the driver was me (I did this before Christmas).


"Should Excel proceed against the of a disabled passenger, a counter-claim for compensation for distress in a sum not less than £500, citing unwarranted harassment, for which the authorities are Blamires, and Ferguson v British Gas. Whilst it is noted that section 1(3)(c) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 states that a course of conduct that someone alleges to be harassment will not be deemed so if the legal person who pursued it shows that the pursuit of the course of conduct was 'reasonable', in this case (where even the ticketer knew or should have known that the passenger was protected by the Equality Act 2010 from day one) that justification will not fly. Due to untrue statements such as “When digitally recording the contravention, the PO noted “driver drove vehicle away whilst issuing p.c.n unable to take final photograph.” Made by your employee and your employee choosing to walk away when a Blue Badge was shown, displaying a disabled person in the car, in accordance with Part 33 of the Miscellaneous Rules for Evidence of the Civil Court Practice, I will be calling him as a witness.

In addition, regardless of other legislation, the Equality Act 2010 creates an offence of harassment arising from discrimination (inherent to that Act alone) and that offence is made out.

I would like to draw your attention to a judgment at the Leeds County Court, 3SP00071 - Blamires v LGO. This was a claim for damages including a matter of a breach of the DPA, for which an award of £2,500 was granted as compensation for distress. As is now relatively well known, the DPA’s original drafting appeared to preclude compensation for distress alone, but the Court of Appeal, in Vidal Hall & ors v Google [2015] EWCA Civ 311, it was held that this was contrary to the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and that, accordingly, there was a right under the DPA to claim compensation for ''pure'' distress.

Further, Excel need to take note that ''distress'' is now included under Article 82 of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and (ironically, like parking charges) is not dependent upon showing 'loss'. Given the indisputable fact that your unwarranted harassment flows from data wrongfully obtained from the DVLA and illegally processed in a case where Excel 'knew, or should have known' that you were running in breach of disability legislation, I will also be relying upon the GDPR and DPA 2018 in support of my counterclaim.

The award in Blamires was of “Vidal Hall” compensation, with the judge saying there was ''no doubt in my mind that the data breaches have caused distress to the claimant in their own rights as well as as a result of the consequences that flowed.'' The judge awarded a further £2,500 aggravated damages because of the manner in which the Defendant conducted its case, including the fact that, notwithstanding being told by the Claimant that its conduct/data was wrong, it took nearly two years for the Defendant to admit the mistake.

It is unacceptable for Excel - as a Service Provider with statutory duties to avoid disadvantaging disabled users of car parks - to disregard those duties in law by saying ''with regards to our Patrol Officers, it is not their responsibility to advise motorists on the Terms and Conditions in place. They are employed to solely issue PCNs to vehicles in breach of the Terms and Conditions.''

I wish to correct your misunderstanding of the law. Service providers and their employees and agents, do have further responsibilities and are not allowed to disregard the Equality Act and if they do, then a victim and their carer can seek compensation for harassment, distress and disadvantage of any description, caused by the trader's actions.

Contract law is trumped by the Equality Act 2010, as well as the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and it seems Excel's staff need retraining. This is similar to the case already tested in court in Excel v Greenwood 3QT60496 4/10/13 and it it shameful that Excel are still hounding carers and disabled people over six years after that case.

I look forward to hearing that you have finally cancelled this charge and I am copying in your client, the landowners at this location, who remain liable for Excel's illegal conduct and also stand to be sued under the same legislation"

Should I also send this to the only email I can find on the Middlesbroughleisurepark site (they have ignored my previous 2 emails) and send it through post to both?

I will also send a SAR separately as advised. Is there any changes I should make before I carry on? They are claiming they won't take any more appeals on the threatening letters they have sent me but i doubt that matters if I have a strong case against the PCN.

I have also forwarded this to the mayor of Middlesbrough and Tees-valley, should I let that be known?

Coupon-mad

I am not the carer of my grandpa, I was just driving him around, does that make me a carer to an extent?

Yes it does, and not just 'to an extent'. I wrote that because I knew you drove him. You were the carer. You were both entitled to rely on the provisions of the EA.

I have also forwarded this to the mayor of Middlesbrough and Tees-valley, should I let that be known?

If you like.

I am very happy to help you write a counter claim like the one described in the pepipoo case (I was not involved in that one). Did you read it and understand how they got £1250 awarded with a carefully worded counter claim?

CasperEcho3434

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Yes it does, and not just 'to an extent'. I wrote that because I knew you drove him. You were the carer. You were both entitled to rely on the provisions of the EA.


If you like.

I am very happy to help you write a counter claim like the one described in the pepipoo case (I was not involved in that one). Did you read it and understand how they got £1250 awarded with a carefully worded counter claim?

I could not find what they exactly said but I was reading the comments and they used the equality 2010 s15 and s21 amongst the font being too small and getting out would of passed the grace period. I know I was in the car park for 5-10 minutes max if that adds to the importance as it sounds like he was waiting to do what he did.

Also, I would very much appreciate if you helped me with that as I have no idea where to start myself.

MistyZ

CasperEcho3434 wrote: »

Should I also send this to the only email I can find on the Middlesbroughleisurepark site (they have ignored my previous 2 emails) and send it through post to both?

If you are talking about a landowner complaint, somewhere on the middlesbroughleisurepark site I noticed 'managed by Savills'. That suggests that Savills are the land management company and they would be the people to complain to.

All you need to do is to find their local office plus an email address for the highest ranking person there. Then complain like hell, not with the above but with a simple explanation of what happened, laying it all on the line and politely insisting on cancellation.

CasperEcho3434

MistyZ wrote: »

If you are talking about a landowner complaint, somewhere on the middlesbroughleisurepark site I noticed 'managed by Savills'. That suggests that Savills are the land management company and they would be the people to complain to.

All you need to do is to find their local office plus an email address for the highest ranking person there. Then complain like hell, not with the above but with a simple explanation of what happened, laying it all on the line and politely insisting on cancellation.

Oh, I did not notice that, thank you for pointing it out.

Should I insinuate that I will get them involved if this goes to court? Or just politely ask for a cancellation like you said.

Umkomaas

CasperEcho3434 wrote: »

Oh, I did not notice that, thank you for pointing it out.

Should I insinuate that I will get them involved if this goes to court? Or just politely ask for a cancellation like you said.

The latter at this stage.