Defense for court claim - East Midlands Airport petrol station

LoveVCS_BFF

Hello!
I am working with my friend (the registered keeper) to defend against a VCS court claim against him for stopping at the petrol station at East Midlands Airport.
We have done the Acknowledgement of Service
We are basing the defense based on this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6073673/vcs-ema-petrol-station-yet-again/p5 
Our situation is basically exactly the same as the situation in this thread so have not modified the defense letter (below).
The deadline is in just less that 2 weeks.

Questions / help being asked for
- can someone check  our situation and defense to make sure it is suitable before we submit it
- do we need to explain in our defense letter any details about the situation that resulted in the ticket (for example, that we had to stop the car to let the passenger visit the shop)? 
Thanks!
-----------------------
The situation leading to the ticket and claim
- My friend parked at the petrol station in a vacant spot (not a designated space) for several minutes
- During time a passenger left the car to go to the petrol station shop
- My friend moved his car to a proper parking space when one became free
- The passenger returned to the car after approx 5 mins
- After this, my friend left the petrol station
 The fee being asked for is £160. My friend has not taken any other action up until receiving the county court claim letter and form, at which point we started looking for help and finding this helpful forum.

Draft Defense 

IN THE COUNTY COURT

CLAIM No: CXXXXXX

BETWEEN:

Vehicle Control Services (Claimant)

2 Europa Court

Sheffield Buisness Park

Sheffield

S91XE

-and-

MYSELF (Defendant)

DEFENCE

The defendant denies that the claimant Vehicle Control Services (VCS) of 2 Europa Court Sheffield Business Park Sheffield is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.

1 - The facts are that the vehicle, registration <reg>, of which the Defendant is the registered keeper, appears from the sparse evidence supplied by this Claimant to have entered a petrol filling station from a private road and stopped briefly where bylaws apply, and as such cannot hold the keeper liable as this land entered is not relevant land.

2- Further and in the alternative, it is denied that the claimant's signage sets out the terms in a sufficiently clear manner which would be capable of binding any reasonable person reading them. The signs and lines are woefully inadequate at the entrance and inside this garage, which is separate from the roadway, and no terms can be said to have been 'bound to be seen', distinguishing this case from the 'brief terms and large lettering' that managed to disengage the penalty rule in what the Supreme Court Judges called the 'unique arrangements' and 'completely different' case of ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67.

2.1 Quite the opposite of the legitimate interest in Beavis, which involved a retail park where parking was on offer (positively invited) and the parking bays had a commercial value, this site within East Midlands Airport has been widely reported as an entrapment zone money-pot for VCS whose sole interest is in drivers not seeing the signs. In the case of this particular Airport Garage site where (purportedly) VCS are contracted to prevent people from stopping apart from around the pumps, there is no simple clear deterrent/warning 'no stopping zone' messages in the form of very large, bright or prominent signs and lines (or any warnings about an instant £100 penalty charge and any signs on the roadway outside are irrelevant to the Garage so cannot be considered) then drivers would stay away and not be caught, however that is not how this industry operates.

2.2 This Claimant's signage is in breach of Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act Schedule 2 'the grey list of unfair terms' and the court has a duty under para 71 of that legislation to consider the transparency and prominence of all consumer notices, which (even if they include a price term) are never exempt from the mandatory legal test of fairness.

3- The terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.

4- The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100. The claim includes an additional £60, for which no calculation or explanation is given, and which appears to be an abuse of process.

5- The provisions in Schedule 4 are intended to apply only on private land in England and Wales. Public highways are excluded as well as any parking places on public land which are either provided or controlled by a local authority (or other government body). Any land which already has statutory controls in relation to the parking of vehicles (such as byelaws applying to airports and some railway station car parks) is also excluded. byelaws apply at this location therefore the PoFA is not applicable therefore vehicle keeper cannot be held liable for this alleged contravention.

6- The Claimant is put to strict proof that it has sufficient interest in the land, or that it has the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices, and to pursue payment by means of litigation

7- In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim discloses no cause of action, is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4.

I believe the facts contained in this Defence Statement are true.

With my signature and date below

<sig>

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on the County Court Claim Form?
On what date was an Acknowledgment of Service filed?
Please don't guess - the MCOL claim history will have the definitive answers.

Coupon-mad

That defence is a start, but too short & generic. A decent Airport defence example was written in 2019, can anyone find it?
It mentioned Ransomes and Jopson to trump VCS v Crutchley and VCS v Ward.

LoveVCS_BFF

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on the County Court Claim Form?
On what date was an Acknowledgment of Service filed?
Please don't guess - the MCOL claim history will have the definitive answers.

The issue date is 28 Jan 2020
The AoS was made on 4th Feb 2020

Coupon-mad said:

That defence is a start, but too short & generic. A decent Airport defence example was written in 2019, can anyone find it?
It mentioned Ransomes and Jopson to trump VCS v Crutchley and VCS v Ward.

Just to clarify - this was at the petrol station at East Midlands airport.
We've copied the defense from the one linked to above which is a very similar situation at the same place, and is very recent (Dec 2019). I don't understand how this can be generic and short when the one linked to is not considered generic and short?

KeithP

The issue date is 28 Jan 2020
The AoS was made on 4th Feb 2020

With a Claim Issue Date of 28th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 2nd March 2020 to file your Defence.

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

When you are happy with the content, your Defence could be filed via email as suggested here:

1. Print your Defence.
   
2. Sign it and date it.
   
3. Scan the signed document back in and save it as a pdf.
   
4. Send that pdf as an email attachment to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk
5. Just put the claim number and the word Defence in the email title, and in the body of the email something like 'Please find my Defence attached'.
   
6. No need to do anything on MCOL, but do check it after a few days to see if the Claim is marked "defence received". If not, chase the CCBC until it is.
   
   After filing your Defence, there is more to do...
   
   
7. Do not be surprised to receive an early copy of the Claimant's Directions Questionnaire. Nothing of interest there. Just file it.
   
8. Wait for your own Directions Questionnaire from the CCBC, or download one from the internet - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n180-directions-questionnaire-small-claims-track , and then complete it as described by bargepole in his 'what happens when' post linked from post #2 of the NEWBIES thread - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou"]
   
9. The completed DQ should be returned by email to the CCBC to the same address and in the same way as your Defence was filed earlier.
   
10. Send a copy of your completed DQ to the Claimant - to their address on your Claim Form.

BrownTrout

The bye law /POFA issue is covered well

Le_Kirk

Coupon-mad said:

That defence is a start, but too short & generic. A decent Airport defence example was written in 2019, can anyone find it?
It mentioned Ransomes and Jopson to trump VCS v Crutchley and VCS v Ward.

Found this one, any good?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6031345/court-letter-robinhood-airport-bus-stop-pcn-help/p6

D_P_Dance

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP., it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and in some cases, cancellation.

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.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Sohail12345

Can anyone help me with my case. 

Its the same also. 

I have got a telephone call coming up. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77119069#Comment_77119069

Coupon-mad

Please stop posting on people's threads.

Redx

Please open your own new thread