Letter from Gladstones Solicitors re Parking Fine: NOW A COUNTY COURT CLAIM

RoseShell

Hello all


I am a member of the Armed Forces, and as such I am frequently away from home on deployment or exercise. Most of my letters go to my mother's home address, and she sends them on to me when she receives them - but this can take some time. As a result of this delay, I did not receive notice until a few months ago of a parking charge brought against me in March 2019 until it had already been sent on to a debt recovery firm. Normally I pay fines promptly, and so I called the debt recovery firm letting them know I was away frequently and had only just been informed of the charge, and would be happy to pay the £60 reduced fee on the original ticket. I was told that I would have to discuss that with the parking company. The parking company told me it was out of their hands. Since then I have ignored their letters.


I have received another letter today, dated 10 December 2019, from Gladstones Solicitors, asking for payment of the full £160, and threatening legal action. I am trying to determine the best course of action; my research so far suggests the following:


1) Contact the solicitor, inform them of the situation, and offer to pay the £60 initial reduced fee;

or


2) Wait to see if Gladstones go to court and put forward the defence that I am a) in the Armed Forces and frequently do not receive mail on time b) would be happy to pay the reduced fee, as I would have had I received the letter promptly, and c) I would still be happy to pay the reduced fee.


Thank you very much in advance for any advice anyone here can provide; you all seem very experienced!


J

BrownTrout

Neither of those optionsv

beamerguy

RoseShell wrote: »

Hello all


I have received another letter today, dated 10 December 2019, from Gladstones Solicitors, asking for payment of the full £160, and threatening legal action. I am trying to determine the best course of action; my research so far suggests the following:

You are being scammed by Gladstones adding on a fake £60

Gladstones told by Judge .... added £60 NOT LAWFUL
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76692888#Comment_76692888

READ ABOUT ABUSE OF PROCESS
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal

Giving you this knowledge, you are at liberty to ask Gladstones on what authority they have to add £60 to the claim.
You can also refer to the above case. They rely only on people not knowing that they are getting spanked in court

They DO NOT have the authority and we are interested in what they say which can be shown in court

The letter might well be a standard debt collector letter. Let them know what you now know

RoseShell

Thanks for the reply beamerguy. I really appreciate you taking the time.



I'm not sure they have added on £60 - the original amount being asked for was £160, and they don't seem to have added any fees.


What would you recommend doing in this situation?

RoseShell

Thanks Browntrout - what would course of action would you recommend?

Redx

RoseShell wrote: »

I'm not sure they have added on £60 - the original amount being asked for was £160, and they don't seem to have added any fees.

I am sure they have added on £60 to the original amount , the original amount on the PCN and signs was £100 , not £160 , so they added the fake £60 onto the £100 pcn

This £100 would have been reduced to £60 for early payment

The newbies thread tells you what to do with debt collector letters , and what to do with any formal LBC , or a court claim , please read it , third thread down from the top of the forum

Ps , in my opinion Gladstone's Solicitors did not send that letter , plus it would be the parking company that issue court proceedings , even if Gladstone's do the work

Coupon-mad

RoseShell wrote: »

I'm not sure they have added on £60 - the original amount being asked for was £160, and they don't seem to have added any fees.

Wrong.

Private Parking Charges are capped at a max ceiling of £100. Of course they added the false 'debt collection costs' £60, like they always do!

RoseShell

Hello all

The case has now progressed to court, and I have been issued a Claim Form by the County Court Business Centre in Northampton.

The detail of the claim is as follows:

"The driver of the vehicle with registration xxxxxxx (the 'Vehicle') parked in breach of the terms of parking stipulated on the signage (the 'Contract') at Enderby Wharf - <address>, on 29/03/2019 thus incurring the parking charge (the 'PCN'). The PCN was not paid within 28 days of issue. The Claimant claims the unpaid PCN from the Defendant as the driver/keeper of the Vehicle. Despite demands being made, the Defendant has failed to settle their outstanding liability. THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS £100 for the PCN, £60.00 contractual costs pursuant to the Contract and PCN terms and conditions, together with statutory interest of £10.18 pursuant to s69 of the County Courts Act 1984  at 8.00% per annum, continuing at £0.04 per day."

I've done some additional research, and I would be very grateful for any advice you would care to give in how to construct a defence. I think I will use the defence here as a template: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76692888#Comment_76692888. Any advice on the validity of that case against this claim would be great - I wonder if the fact that they've separated out the £100 for the PCN and £60 in 'contractual costs' makes it more legitimate? 

I would be curious what you all think of the idea of pushing the fact that the first notice I received of the parking fine was when I received a letter from a debt collector - no postal fine was sent and no PCN was affixed to my car. When I spoke to the debt collector they advised me to speak to the parking firm, and the parking firm advised me that there was nothing more they could do now that it was with the debt collector.

Another issue is that I have no evidence to back my case up with - no record of the phone conversations, and it is very hard to prove that I was not sent a fine, or that there was no PCN on my windscreen.

Many thanks in advance for any help and advice you can give!

Rose

beamerguy

THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS £100 for the PCN, £60.00 contractual costs pursuant to the Contract 

Gladstones not only iive in the clouds, they are totally incompetent.    The courts don't allow their rubbish and you can prove this .....

Gladstones told by Judge .... added £60 NOT LAWFUL
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76692888#Comment_76692888"nofollow" href="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76756261#Comment_76756261">https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76756261#Comment_76756261"nofollow" href="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76533511#Comment_76533511">https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/76533511#Comment_76533511"nofollow" href="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal/p1?new=1">https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal/p1?new=1

PART 2
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6103933/abuse-of-process-thread-part-2/p1?new=1

Le_Kirk

You might try the template defence to be found in this link: -
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/suggested-template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-charge-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs/p1

nosferatu1001

1) What is the DATE OF ISSUE? As you will know from reading loads of other threads, we need to know
2) Have you followed the NEWBIES thread advice to acknowledge he claim *ONLINE* using MCOL?
3) Have you sent a SAR yet to the PPC? You would get all the pictures etc they hold on you.