Help For a Neighbour who has County Court Claim for False Parking

chaz129

Hi
Hello everyone I am not too good with IT but here goes.
My Neighbour who is Resettled Polish lady and a lovely honest single mum parked in Sainsbury car park for 4 mins while getting cash from the cash point, this was on a Saturday Morning, She then went to Goole on a trip to her brothers She filled up her car at a petrol station and went to York where she paid parking to go into York Teaching hospital then went home
Later that day she went back to sainsburys to get some items for tea and was there 15-20 mins max, parking there is free for 2 hours.
A week later she received an ANPR parking fine from Vehicle Control Systems and was told the ANPR has registered her going in on the morning and leaving several hours later which was obviously not true,
She sent in an appeal with copies of her bank statement showing she paid parking in York that afternoon and the ANPR must be wrong, the appeal was rejected and now several months later she has been sent County courts papers to fill in and send.
The lady only lives 300 yards away and would never leave her car there for hours under any circumstances as she has her own on/off street parking and I have known her for a few years and she is 100% honest, the fine was I believe £60 and now they are demanding £185.
What should she do next please as I am retired and do not really understand how people do this to other people and get away with it, even !!!!!! Turpin wore a mask when he robbed you.
Any help would be greatly appreciated but please be patient with me as I am struggling just writing this post

KeithP

What is the Issue Date on the lady's County Court Claim Form?

Ralph-y

did she not think to complain to the manager?  ... it may be a bit late but email the CEO at head office

Sainsbury's
Mr SimonRoberts	Chief Executive
Email	simon.roberts@sainsburys.co.uk

Ralph

D_P_Dance

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, sometimes it can lead to cancellation.,

Le_Kirk

You and your friend should both read the NEWBIE sticky (perhaps together) and in particular the part about double dipping, which is a well-known problem whereby the ANPR reads the first entry and the last exit and seems to "forget" the first exit and second entry.  Ask your friend to submit a SAR to the DPO of VCS (dataprotection@vehiclecontrol.co.uk) with proof of being the registered keeper of the car (a scan of her V5C will do) and ask for the times of entry and exit from the ANPR of a car with the VRM matching hers.  Plan A is also a good shout, a complaint to the retailer as advice by @Ralph-y.

1505grandad

".......lovely honest single mum parked in Sainsbury car park for 4 mins while getting cash from the cash point,......"

"A week later she received an ANPR parking fine from Vehicle Control Systems........."

Can you advise which car park this is?

chaz129

Hi 
Keith P: The issue date for the county court is 25th September 2020.
Ralph Y: I believe she tried to complain to Sainsbury manager but her english is not great and she was fobbed off with its not under our control, I will write an email to the CEO thanks for your input.
Le_Kirk: To be honest I find reading everything on the Newbie thread is confusing too technical for me to understand most of it and of course the lady in question is pretty basic on the english language, she can read and speak english but struggles with anything too advanced.
1505 Grandad: The car park is Abbey Walk Sainsburys car park in selby.

KeithP

chaz129 said:

The issue date for the county court is 25th September 2020.

With a Claim Issue Date of 25th September, you have until Wednesday 14th October to file an Acknowledgment of Service. If possible, do not file an AoS before 1st October, but otherwise there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an AoS, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an AoS, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 28th October 2020 to file your Defence.

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

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service instructions.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that for filing a Defence.


Of course everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I mean the named Defendant.

chaz129

Hi all
Thank you everyone for your input and I think I may have struck gold thanks to Ralph-y as I sent off an email to the CEO and received a promising letter from his executive office and a nice lady has taken the details and is looking into this for me fingers crossed this will be resolved.
Here is also a letter I sent to the office explaining what I think is wrong with the ANPR system.

Hi

Further to my last message I forgot to point out that this ANPR camera system is badly flawed in my opinion, as Sainsbury's  in Selby is on its own entry/exit on to a roundabout and very busy road with traffic lights  (You can see this on Google earth also Google street level shows the actual cameras mounted to a lamp post about 20 meters from the roundabout) and the thing that happens all day everyday is traffic exiting Sainsbury's backs up past the ANPR system so if your in the traffic trying to exit your car park the ANPR system cannot see you exit as your rear number plate is not viewable as there are cars behind you and in front bumper to bumper up to the roundabout which is why I think this is causing double dipping fines being wrongly sent out, especially bad on a busy shopping Saturday as in this case , maybe it would be good for Sainsbury to an assessment of the system that is in place, as my next door neighbour is certainly not the first to be wrongly punished by VCS and it is causing bad feeling locally which will reflect on Sainsbury's footfall eventually. 

I hope this explains what I am trying to point out to you, if not please do not hesitate to contact me for further information and I will even take a video for you which is what I was going to do if it went as far as County Court.

 I hope this may help someone else in the future particularly selby people accused of the same wrongly accused.
Regards
Charles

Coupon-mad

Good...but you say she has a court claim? 

She still has to acknowledge it and file a defence or she loses by default and risks a CCJ.  I doubt Sainsburys can cancel a VCS PCN so assume they will fail and you MUST help her to acknowledge that claim and defend it (no, not by returning the forms).

Please just read the NEWBIES thread about how to acknowledge a claim. It's not technical.  It takes you to a link in pictures!

Then, she will have to file a defence but by acknowledging the claim online it will extend the time...maybe Sainsburys will get it cancelled.  Maybe not, but she MUST defend if this is not confirmed by VCS.  No-one else.

Do you really mean 'Vehicle Control Systems'?  Surely you mean 'Services Ltd'?

chaz129

Hi
Thank you for the advice I have been round next door and helped fill in the requirements for a gateway ID and filled in an online claim defence AOS which I believe mentioned 28 days, please correct me if I have done anything wrong or something else I should do please.
Yes you are also correct it is services and not systems now I check.

Regards
Charles