DCB legal for VCS. Witness statement due 9th April. Urgent help appreciated

Viera90210

I have until 9th April to provide my witness statement to the court and DCB / VCS before a county court hearing. Below is a timeline of events. I would appreciate anyone's help with how to get myself out of this mess!

Timeline:

VCS ticket on 23rd May 2016
I sent an appeal quoting Parking Eye vs Beavis
This was rejected
They then claim they sent me lots of other correspondence including a letter before claim
In August I received papers from Northampton CC to which I responded by saying that I had not had not had a letter before claim and that without additional info I could not comment
Three months elapsed and I thought that DCB had not responded. I Phoned the CC who told me that no response had been received and that therefore case was stayed.
I was then surprised to then received further correspondence offering to enter into mediation to which I responded and agreed. I also contacted the county court who said that the case had not been stayed but the response had been lost in their backlog and that DCB had responded in time by email.
Most recently I received a letter from the court asking for me to provide my evidence to them and DCB by 9th April.
A pack arrived from DCB with lots of copies of letters and photos of the car and the original parking ticket.

I am not the registered keeper of the car nor have I ever been.
I have not stated this nor have I admitted to being the driver at the time.

Is this worth stating at this stage?
Should I just pay now or is there any chance of winning on the day.

What surprised me most is that DCB have said they do not intend to appear in court but have submitted a witness statememt and will rely on this as hearsay evidence.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I would be happy to send a pdf of all the correspondence to anyone who might be interested in helping with more info to hand

Thanks in advance.
PS I have attached the DCB witness statement to this post

Le_Kirk

If you are not the Registered Keeper, how did you receive a charge notice in your name?  How did you receive court papers in your name? 
Reading the witness statement by Jake Burgess (there's a familiar name) he states that as the driver had not paid, they obtained the name and address of the registered keeper.  Something is not right somewhere.

Viera90210

Le_Kirk said:

If you are not the Registered Keeper, how did you receive a charge notice in your name?  How did you receive court papers in your name? 

I submitted an appeal using my details. So from there they are saying that is in effect admitting to being the driver

Viera90210

Le_Kirk said:

If you are not the Registered Keeper, how did you receive a charge notice in your name?  How did you receive court papers in your name? 
Reading the witness statement by Jake Burgess (there's a familiar name) he states that as the driver had not paid, they obtained the name and address of the registered keeper.  Something is not right somewhere.

Registered keeper is a relative but not me nor have I ever been.
Is this common for them to say they will not be attending the hearing?

Coupon-mad

Yes this is all nomal, nor surprise here.  Neither VCS nor DCBL turn up but they send a legal rep, like you'll soon see from all the zillions of other VCS threads you need to read a few of:

What surprised me most is that DCB have said they do not intend to appear in court but have submitted a witness statememt and will rely on this as hearsay evidence.

Should I just pay now or is there any chance of winning on the day.

We have a 99% win rate going back to 2017 and you are not going to pay the falsely added £60 anyway.    Even people who lose manage to argue against that (please don't ask how; reading similar threads for a couple of days, will explain all).

Read the WS examples in the NEWBIES thead and any recent 2020 thread about WS and evidence stage.

Read the threads by @keypulse and @Lego-9 for examples of what people submitted, including their COSTS.  Also, you have effectively admitted to driving by appealing a PCN so (if you were driving) don't pretend otherwise in the WS.

What EXACTLY (exact copy & paste words please) did your defence say?

Which car park is this about and what happened?

D_P_Dance

The hired legal gun will no doubt have only seen the papers a short time before and have had little time to prepare themselves. 
You will not be facing Messrs. Rumpole or Cavendish.

beamerguy

The problem with a PDF file is that it wants to download to my PC which I will not do due to viruses, 
Mediation is bit like putting a noose around your neck and not advise, still time to change that.

Now, it does not really matter too much about a volume of paperwork, the point here being did DCBL add on a fake £70 AS  THEY NORMALLY DO and have they signed a statement of truth stating the fake add on is lawful ?

Viera90210

D_P_Dance said:

The hired legal gun will no doubt have only seen the papers a short time before and have had little time to prepare themselves. 
You will not be facing Messrs. Rumpole or Cavendish.

SO they do send someone just not the witness?
I read that as they don't now need to send anyone. Relying on hearsay. Anyway I'll read the posts that have been suggested.

We've all been ill hence the mad rush.
Letters need to be with them by this Thursday I was aiming to post on Tuesday by guaranteed next day delivery - is that a good way to send?    

D_P_Dance

 the point here being did DCBL add on a fake £70 AS  THEY NORMALLY DO and have they signed a statement of truth stating the fake add on is lawful ?

Remind me, would that be contempt of court, or perjery?  

KeithP

...I was aiming to post on Tuesday by guaranteed next day delivery - is that a good way to send? 

Never ever send anything to a parking company or their solicitors using any service that requires a signature.

All that does is give the intended recipient the opportunity to not sign and hence refuse delivery.

All you have then is proof of non-delivery. Not quite what you want.

If you want to use Royal Mail, then send it by standard first class post obtaining a free Certificate of Posting from the Post Office counter. The item is deemed delivered two working days later.

Keep that Certificate of Posting as proof.

Coupon-mad

D_P_Dance said:

The hired legal gun will no doubt have only seen the papers a short time before and have had little time to prepare themselves. 
You will not be facing Messrs. Rumpole or Cavendish.

I was once, in a case wher DCBLegal sent a hired gun who was barrister-trained and tried to walk all over me as he took and hogged the floor.  He also barked at the lady Defendant and tried to trick her, during a period of 'questioning' (when I was not allowed to speak) into agreeing that an old picture was a true picture of the 'sign' at the time.  When she stuttered ''I don't know...'' about the sign and then added a pained ''I don't know what you want me to say'' with tears in her eyes, he barked ''You don't KNOW?!'' 

And at the end he tried to get the Judge to agree to £845 in unreasonableness costs and his reasoning was purely that she had ignored the PCN and not appealed it.

So it does happen sometimes.  Rare but happens.

I agree with KeithP, never send papers by 'signed for' delivery to a solicitor - LOL, especially NOT when there's no-one likely to be in any offices!  Think about it.  Who's gonna sign then?!  NO-ONE.  It then stays at the PO undelivered because youlve insisted on a signature you do not need.