*Updated* VCS Discontinue 7 days before WS & Court Fee Due for PCN Moorfoot Tavern Sheffield

beamerguy

Zeus65 said:

A few days later I received a letter from a Jake Burgess at VCS stating;

'We are confident that we have a strong case against you and we are entitled to recover the outstanding Parking Charge Notice and any additional costs, as set out in the Particulars of Claim. However, we are mindful that under the Civil Procedure Rules litigants are expected to try and resolve their disputes wherever possible. T

Therefore we are willing to accept a reduced settlement charge of £125 payable within 14 days from the date of this letter. This offer is made on a without prejudice basis. Should you fail to accept our offer of settlement then we will continue with our Claim for the full amount claimed and bring this letter to the Courts' attention upon the question of costs'

I take this as a sign of them knowing the £160 is an abuse of process and following my defence and Judges Orders this is likely to be the main talking point of the hearing which they want to avoid. Interesting they say the letter will be brought to the courts attention as I am not sure how at this stage it makes any difference when the Particulars of Claim state the £160 and they say they will continue with the full amount claimed??

I guess it is nice to have quite a bit of time to get prepared, any further advice or direction to useful threads since 13th Feb that I may have missed would be much appreciated

Z

The old Jake Burgess waffle.   The question must always be when these companies offer discounts is WHY ?

If they really thought they could win would they really be stupid enough to lose money ? 
VCS already know the fake £60 is unlawful and they know that the chances of winning is low and that they will be spanked again by a judge.   ASK THEM ON WHAT LEGAL AUTHORITY DO THEY HAVE TO ADD £60
As they have no legal authority, all they can do is lie.   
===============================================================
Dear Sirs,

I refer to XXX dated XXX  I am unsure that your claim is legitimate. I require that you advise me as to what legal authority you have to add an amount of £60 to your claim.  You clearly already know that this is Abuse of Process 

As I will reference all judgments made against VCS for Abuse of Process.  I ask you again on what LEGAL AUTHORITY do you have to add £60 to your claim ?  Please note that I will show this letter to the court and any reply you send me. Should you fail to respond and substantiate your claim, I will ask the court to strike out your claim for being unreliable.

This is now a very serious situation for you and I now give you the option to immediately discontinue all of your claim and you bear your own costs.  In turn, I will not claim costs against you.
Please reply within 7 days from the date of this email with your intentions

Yours faithfully

Fruitcake

I would chance going on my own with my court defence in a folder and if stopped say honestly that you are gathering evidence for a court case. 

It's also worth having a look on google street view and using the date slider to see if anything useful can be seen from either side of the date of the alleged event, then take screenshots as evidence.

Redx

Signage pictures and a location map should be included in their exhibits at the WS plus Exhibits plus summary costs assessment stage before any court hearing

These sites usually come up on here or pepipoo or Google search , plus naming the sites may mean a local food Samaritan can take photos for you and upload them , I know I have done so for people victimised in my car parks area

Once a judgment has been issued and paid in full promptly , it's over and done with

Payment in full expunges the CCJ , no additional extras to worry about

One reason we help to provide facts is to stop foolish unfounded assumptions ,chatter that she knows nothing at all and is excluded from the process than worrying about issues that won't happen , it's not a manslaughter case of g b h case , it's a small civil dispute between 2 parties , it's not even as bad as talking on a mobile phone whilst driving and getting caught

Every other lost court case on here , including the Beavis case , hasn't resulted in what she thinks as long as the judgment was paid promptly , in full

She should let you concentrate on winning , then celebrating with the costs order that you have claimed , so buy her a box of celebrations when you win from the Jake Burgess cheque

beamerguy

Umkomaas said:

at the moment I am unable to travel to Sheffield to gain evidence on signage and entering/exiting the car park which I believe will play a strong part for me. If this lockdown continued would I just have to accept I can not get hold of and rely on this evidence in my case?

Hasn't Boris lifted the ban on travel to a remote site to take exercise?  'I'm driving to Sheffield to take some exercise, officer'!  

It seems that we can travel anywhere in England as long as we are back home for bedtime.?  DAFT
If you travel from England to Scotland, you will be shot on site and if you go to Wales, it's two weeks isolation on the top of Mount Snowdon

500 MILES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO6lSDL1i7A

Fruitcake

Is this the place? The car park entrance appears to be off South Lane. There is no vehicular entrance from Cumberland Street. The restaurant sits on the corner of Cumberland Street and South Lane.



Google Maps Street View image, dated bottom right as being captured on October 2014. VCS entrance sign can be seen just forward of the large blue van.



Image captured September 2015. Entrance sign removed. 



Image captured November 2015. Still no entrance sign.



Image captured in May 2016, two months before the date of the alleged event. No VCS or anyone else's parking signs visible.



Image captured in May 2017. Still no signs the year after the alleged event. 
The sign above the graffiti says, No Parking, Private Loading.


The same loading sign was present in 2015.



So, parking signs removed between October 2014 and September 2015. No parking signs present up to a year after the date of the alleged event. Therefore no contract could be formed with a driver.
Loading signs present on the El Paso restaurant building in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

It should also note that the Moorcroft Tavern ceased to exist in January 2014 and the El Paso restaurant has been in existence at that location since then, over two years before the alleged event.

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/383644-new-el-paso-ex-moorfoot-tavern/

Any reference to the Moorcroft Tavern in the claim is therefore suspect as it is over two years out of date. This implies that the claimant has neither visited nor audited the car park or signs at this location, especially as the signs were removed a year before the date of the alleged event.
This puts into doubt any witness statement where signage is referred to as being within personal knowledge of the person(s) signing witness statements.
It also puts into doubt any purported contract with the landowner or landowner agent.

Zeus, have you contacted the restaurant at all about this? Even just a letter saying the driver was indeed unloading would help.

MothballsWallet

Fruitcake, that bus was very inconsiderate getting in the way of the camera in your image numbers 3 and 5

Coupon-mad

Very good evidence though. The OP can use all that and no need to go to Sheffield.

Zeus65

Fruitcake said:

Is this the place? The car park entrance appears to be off South Lane. There is no vehicular entrance from Cumberland Street. The restaurant sits on the corner of Cumberland Street and South Lane.



Google Maps Street View image, dated bottom right as being captured on October 2014. VCS entrance sign can be seen just forward of the large blue van.



Image captured September 2015. Entrance sign removed. 



Image captured November 2015. Still no entrance sign.



Image captured in May 2016, two months before the date of the alleged event. No VCS or anyone else's parking signs visible.



Image captured in May 2017. Still no signs the year after the alleged event. 
The sign above the graffiti says, No Parking, Private Loading.


The same loading sign was present in 2015.



So, parking signs removed between October 2014 and September 2015. No parking signs present up to a year after the date of the alleged event. Therefore no contract could be formed with a driver.
Loading signs present on the El Paso restaurant building in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

It should also note that the Moorcroft Tavern ceased to exist in January 2014 and the El Paso restaurant has been in existence at that location since then, over two years before the alleged event.

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/383644-new-el-paso-ex-moorfoot-tavern/

Any reference to the Moorcroft Tavern in the claim is therefore suspect as it is over two years out of date. This implies that the claimant has neither visited nor audited the car park or signs at this location, especially as the signs were removed a year before the date of the alleged event.
This puts into doubt any witness statement where signage is referred to as being within personal knowledge of the person(s) signing witness statements.
It also puts into doubt any purported contract with the landowner or landowner agent.

Zeus, have you contacted the restaurant at all about this? Even just a letter saying the driver was indeed unloading would help.

Yes this is the one! Absolutely incredible - thank you so much. How the hell did I not know there was a date slider on Google Maps?? What a revelation. The latest images had  buses right in front of the car park and I couldn't see a lot which was why I was going to drive there. Really saving me a trip. Even more ideal that there the loading sign is clear on the building I was actually loading to when you enter.

I have spoken to the restaurant owners as I new they had a number of PCN's themselves through this period. Unfortunately they had £1000's worth racked up against them as they ignored them for a long period of time and kept getting them and decided to pay it!  I hopefully might be able to get an email or something out of them. I doubt they would go to the effort of writing and posting a letter as it was so long ago.

I am going to pull it all together and get everything sent over to the court and VCS as early as possible. Hopefully once they see my evidence and read my WS it will force there hand once and for all to drop it!

Thanks again for going the extra mile on this

Snakes_Belly

It was a car park in Burton that three posters on this forum fought claims. Another one is ongoing. One of the three posters had two separate claims. On the final claim she was allowed costs for unreasonable behaviour.  Three hearings were at Derby and one (mine) at Stafford.  A very expensive exercise for Excel/VCS.

Fruitcake is very good at spotting evidence in the car park that supports the legal argument.  The Burton on Trent car park was a nightmare.  It's the one by the Travelodge/Station.  Like where you were parked there is a lot of random signage that is not related to the car park. Delivery lorries etc.

Fruitcake

To find the date slider, click in the black box at the top left corner of any image on the clock with the circular arrows next to the words Street View.
Then it's a case of moving the slider to find the date you want. Note that some images will show the date you want, such as May 2016, but if you move to the next camera position, identified by the X that appears in the road as you move the image around, it might revert to the previous dateline. In other words, always check the image capture date; don't rely on the slider date.