2015 Gladstone Letter Before Claim

HarryKobi

Firstly, I apologise for a new thread, I have been reading previous posts for days but having a 4 day old newborn I am struggling to make heads or tails of anything and beginning to feel overwhelmed regarding this.

On 12/12/2015 I (Driver) parked at a car park ran by "Local Parking Security Ltd" for approx 10 minutes, I did not pay.
I can't quite remember the following sequence of events but my mother (keeper) started receiving letters demanding payment. Following poor, outdated advice from a family member, I went down the ignore route.

Fast forward to April 1st 2020 (convenient) my mother has received a letter from Gladstone Solicitors demanding payment of £160, see images attached.

I can afford to pay it and am considering this as I don't want to cause my mother any trouble.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated, in the mean time I will continue to read other threads as much as possible.

D_P_Dance

I can afford to pay it and am considering this as I don't want to cause my mother any trouble.

An MP recently ventured that some of these companies may ahe links to organised crime so you coud be contributing to white slavery, people smuggling, and the protation of class A substances if you pay.

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 has been known to get the charge cancelled.

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, when life gets back to normal, it will become impossible for those scammers who are left to continue their vile trade, 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.

HarryKobi

Thank you for your reply, I will do that.
Is the letter before claim a genuine LBC or just a scare tactic?

nosferatu1001

I cant see any attachments.
Esasy to tell -d oes it give you 30 days to respond, or 14?
Also, Gladstones dont do "scare" twactics, they just robotically process claims. 

HarryKobi

The attachments didn't appear, here they are (hopefully).
The longer letter was sent to a previous address. They found my mothers new address and offered 14 days on the second letter.

Thanks very much for looking.

EDIT - The scribbled out parts appeared thicker on my phone!

beamerguy

HarryKobi said:

Thank you for your reply, I will do that.
Is the letter before claim a genuine LBC or just a scare tactic?

The image does not show.   It could be an LBC, does it say letter before claim at the top ?

Whatever it says, Gladstones are scamming you for £160

HarryKobi

I have re-attached the images above.
I have sent an email to Gladstone in line with another thread asking what legal grounds they have to request the additional £60. I have also reported this to SRA but this is as far as I have got this far.

Thanks

KeithP

The second image is a valid Letter of Claim.

You should react to it as described in the first few paragraphs of the second post of the NEWBIES thread - .

HarryKobi

Thanks for your reply.
How do I play writing a SAR - should I write it as if its coming from my mother (with her permission and reviewed by her) or state that I was the driver? I can see the latter getting confusing/messy as the SAR is specifically asking for information held effected by GDPR?

Ralph-y

ignore

Ralph

Umkomaas

Don't ignore!  You're at the business end of things now.

Everything must be done in your mother's name. Do not attempt to do this one behalf of'. Of course you can do all the work, but all under your mother's name. This is not your claim. 

Template for SAR can be found here:

https://legalbeagles.info/library/guides_and_letters/court/subject-access-request/