BigDosser Claim Defence Help - Gladstones. Help appreciated.

KeithP

Have a look at page 14 of the Money Claim Online (MCOL) - User Guide -https://www.moneyclaimsuk.co.uk/PDFForms/money-claim-online-user-guide.pdf - where it says:

[QUOTE]How long does the defendant have to respond to my claim?

The court will send out a claim pack to each defendant once the claim has been issued and allows 5 calendar days from the date of issue for the service of the claim. Therefore the 'date of service' is the 5th calendar day after issue. 

The defendant has 14 calendar days from the 'date of service' to file a response. If the last day for filing the response falls on a day that the court is not open (i.e. a weekend or public holiday), the court will allow the next full working day for a response. The defendant can extend the time to respond to 28 calendar days by filing an acknowledgment of service (AOS).[/QUOTE]

KeithP

Sorry about the formatting. Still struggling with the missing options.

Coupon-mad

I struck this out in my earlier reply to you:
3. The defendant would like to raise the point of the abuse of process being displayed by the claimant. 

BigDosser

Ok thanks! Not sure what more to add so unless anyone has anything to add I’ll submit tomorrow and keep this thread updated. Thanks all 

BigDosser

Update - directions questionnaire received and sent back to the CCBC and the claimants legal representative, following the advice on the newbies thread. Ive read it can take 20 weeks to receive a court date so ill post once i receive an update. Thanks all

Umkomaas

BigDosser said:

Update - directions questionnaire received and sent back to the CCBC and the claimants legal representative, following the advice on the newbies thread. Ive read it can take 20 weeks to receive a court date so ill post once i receive an update. Thanks all

Maybe significantly more delayed because of COVID-19.  

BigDosser

Hi All, 
So since the last update, i confusingly received two letters confirming my court hearing, both of which had different dates for the hearing (31st July & 7th August) however i have had confirmation it is indeed the 31st July, meaning i have to submit my Witness Statement no more than 14 days before this (16th July). 
I have received the witness statement from Gladstones, and of course it has been signed by Jack Chapman. I have tried searching for the forums for the best information to include regarding this, but struggled to find anything, so would appreciate it if someone could provide some links where i can read further into this. 
Anyway, there are multiple errors in the claimants case which i have tried to highlight in my witness statement but keen to expand upon & would welcome feedback on how to improve this further. The errors include:
 * Use of Jack Chapman as witness
* Observed time and time of charge issue being with 6 minutes - No Grace Period
* No evidence that the Notice To Keeper was attached to the vehicle - there is a picture of a NTK, but you cannot see what it says. There is also a picture of the front of my car, but the flash on the camera blocks the NTK so it doesn't show it being on my car - i honestly cant recall if it was on there or not, but i want to use this lack of evidence in my favour. 
* They have included a google maps screenshot of the parking area, and then added dots to represent signs - this doesn't prove anything in my opinion. 
* They responded to my defence statement, where i questioned if they authority to issue parking charges on the land in question. They have sent me a copy of the agreement, but have blacked out the space where signatures go so im assuming this can go against them. 
* They have also included a picture of a car which is not mine lol 
Overall i feel like there is a lot of avenues to go on the offensive, my draft WS is below and i welcome any improvements/feedback. Thanks for reading  

BigDosser

1.     I am XXXXX the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

2.     Any documentary evidence to my witness statement will be referred to as Exhibit XX01, XX02 and so on.

3.     The Claimant’s legal representatives informed me that their assumption is that the Claimant’s witness will not attend the hearing, presenting a significant disadvantage for me.  If the Claimant’s witness does not attend the court hearing to give evidence, I will be unable to question the witness for the statement’s validity.

 

4.     On XXXX, my registered vehicle was parked at XXXXX. My vehicle was parked in a legitimate parking space, and upon entering the XXXX reception, my vehicle details were entered into a tablet which covered parking for a period of 4 hours. As seen in the claimant’s evidence and also Exhibit XX05, the start date for the parking was 20:09pm and the end date in which the car was covered was 06/12/2018 at 00:09pm.

 

The grounds for which the claimant has issued the charge is “No Parking Outside of a Marked Bay” however the claimant has failed to evidence this. They have also failed to prove that the signage in the car park was easily visible for anyone parking in the space my vehicle was parked. They have failed to prove a Notice to Driver/Parking Charge Notice was affixated to my vehicle.

 

They have manipulated google map images to falsely show locations of parking signs, clearly showing no knowledge of the area. They have also included evidence which shows a different vehicle.

 

They have used evidence, which in the defendant’s opinion, does not prove anything and was solely used to pressure and manipulate the defendant into paying an over-inflated parking charge.

 

They have also ignored any grace periods outlined in the British Parking Associations Code of Practice and have exercised abuse of power in order to inflate the value of their claim.

 

ASSUMPTION OF DRIVER

The claimant has assumed that myself, the defendant and registered keeper of the vehicle was also the driver of the vehicle, however they have failed to prove this, and have used an irrelevant Criminal case of Elliott v Loake 1983 to support this claim. They have also failed to prove a Notice to Keeper was issued and therefore in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, the registered keeper cannot be held to account for the alleged debt of the driver.

 

THE CLAIMANT’S WITNESS

 

5.     The witness statement appears to not actually be signed by Mr Jack Chapman, and the Defendant is in the process of making a formal complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) having come across through research a similar UK Car Park Management Limited (UKCPM) case where this exact same UKCPM 'electronic signature' was exposed by a lay representative a few months ago, to be a facsimile and that UKCPM could not have signed the statement on the date stated under the facsimile signature, or at all.

6.     In the two cases in October, Claim Nos. E9GF9M7K and E4GF8M1R, UKCPM -v- Mrs A, before Deputy District Judge Chohan at High Wycombe statements purported to have been signed by 'Jack Chapman', an employee of the Claimant company, could not have been. A comparison of the signatures on these two statements showed that the signatures are 100% identical in every respect, down to the last pixel. It was highly improbable, if not impossible, that any person would sign his name twice in a completely identical manner on two separate occasions, three months apart. The same signature in this case too. 

7.     The complaint to the SRA continued: The only possible conclusion to be drawn from this, is that Gladstones have copied, traced, or otherwise forged Mr Chapman's signature, and that in fact Mr Chapman has never seen or signed these statements.

8.     The complaint, currently under investigation against Gladstones, suggested that the SRA needs to take urgent action on this matter, as it is more likely than not that this is an ongoing and regular practice.

9.     In the case of UKCPM v Mrs A on 17th October, Deputy District Judge Chohan at High Wycombe struck out both conjoined claims. He also agreed that the two factors of late service, and a defective witness statement, crossed the threshold of unreasonable behaviour, and awarded Mrs A her full costs in the sum of £331.80, which he said was a very reasonable figure.

10.  This case has the same facsimile signature from a person who was not a witness. It is a template statement and 'Jack' from UKCPM is most likely not going to be in court to be cross examined.

NO NOTICE TO DRIVER

11.  In point 10, The Claimant alleges that a Notice to Driver was placed on the windscreen of the vehicle, and has provided photographic evidence of this. The Claimants evidence does not show that a Notice to Driver was placed on the windscreen of the defendant’s vehicle, and therefore it can only be concluded that a notice to driver/PCN was not affixated to the vehicle. Therefore, in accordance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, the defendant, as registered keeper, cannot be held to account for the alleged debt of the driver.

NO GRACE PERIOD

12.  The British Parking Association’s guidelines 13.1 states that if the driver is parking without permission, or at locations where parking is not normally permitted they must have the chance to read the terms and conditions before they enter into the ‘parking contract’. If, having had that opportunity they decided not to park but choose to leave the car park the operators must provide them with a reasonable grace period to leave, as they will not be bound by the operator’s parking contract. The BPA guidelines further state that in such instances the grace period must be a minimum of 10 minutes. See Exhibit XX01.

 

The Claimant did not offer the sufficient grace period to the driver which they have confirmed in their own witness statement (point 9), where they state “XXXX was observed to be parked and unattended at the site between 19:02 and 19:08”, which is within the 10-minute grace period as outlined in point 11, and therefore a parking contract was not entered. Please see Exhibit XX02 and XX03.

 

 

SIGNAGE

 

13.  The claimant has failed to prove that the defendant’s vehicle was parked in an area where signs are visible and has failed to show the true location of the signs in relation to the defendant’s vehicle. They have shown in their evidence (see exhibit XX06) a rear shot of the defendant’s vehicle, in which a large coach can be seen. It is likely, that If they were any signs in the area, that this large coach would have obscured the view of any parking signs. They have also included a close-up screenshot of a parking sign, which is not timestamped and therefore cannot be proven to be in place at the alleged time of the charge. The evidence provided of another photo of a parking sign, clearly shows poor visibility and also does not show where the sign is in relation to the defendant’s vehicle, and therefore cannot be used to suggest the signs were in place in which a normal person could see them. Furthermore, the claimant has provided a “google maps” screenshot of the area, and has manually added green dots onto the map image, to assumingly insinuate the locations of parking signs and the defendant’s vehicle – this does not prove anything and therefore confirms my earlier statement in which the claimant has failed to prove the locations of the signs in relation to the defendant’s vehicle.

14.  It is therefore denied that the signage was capable of creating a legally binding contract.

 

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

beamerguy

You are not saying much about Abuse of Process.   This will help the judge decide and could be a deciding decision to get the case struck out ?

Go through these 2 threads and see a few of the cases Gladstones have had struck out

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6014081/abuse-of-process-district-judge-tells-bwlegal/p1?new=1

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

Take note of the comments said by the judges

Fruitcake

Please show us the scammers witness statement. I am especially interested in the alleged contract. Is it with the landowner or with an alleged agent of the landowner? If the latter, is there a contract between the landowner and the agent allowing the agent to employ a scammer?