Parked unaware due to mental health in 2015, now received a Letter of Claim

moonpie1963

Hi, my partner and I parked at MOTO Reading East in 2015 due to him feeling a panic attack coming on. We were on the way to visit family several hours away and opted to turn back around and go home after staying at the services for a few hours. We received a Charge Notice (PCN) 10 days later. I sent an appeal and it was, of course, refused. Now we've had a Letter of Claim in the mail and I'm prepping to send out a barrage of emails and I'd like to check with the lovely folx here that I've addressed all the most impactful points in our situation.

First thing to note is that my appeal to CP Plus does appear to admit we were the drivers, though it doesn't say so outright. Honestly I can't remember why I did it that way as I came here and read all the information (as best I could, I suppose). Then it also doesn't appear that I appealed to POPLA after receiving the refusal from CP Plus; I vaguely remember that the advice at the time was why bother, they'll just refuse you and you won't pay anyway, but I don't genuinely remember.
We received a few more letters after that going into 2016, including bogus debt recovery letters, but silence until the end of 2019 when we started receiving them again. Again I came to this site and re-read the advice thread and then took no action.

Last week we got the Letter of Claim and I come back here to find out that because of our lovely year of our Lord Covid 2020, these horrible parking firms are actually taking people to court. Oh great... I've been handling this (barely) because my partner's anxiety issues would've had us pay them back in 2015 when we couldn't afford it. Now I get to tell him we're going to court after all that?

Anyway, I've prepared a packet that's got my draft letter to my MP (written entirely myself) and one for MOTO (used another posted email to a different company as a template). Included is all the letters we've received (redacted ofc) in case there's anything valuable on there, and the emails to and from CP Plus. I'm an immigrant, so I would particularly appreciate feedback on tone/phrasing and whether it conforms to the correct standards of correspondence? It's available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I-PH6-LB8W789Lu98CFbgUoigBCM30oY?usp=sharing

In hindsight, it looks like I've made some mistakes and I get that. Ya'll can degrade me all you like, but you're not going to make me feel worse than I've made myself if I have to tell my partner we're going to court. And yes, I know it's just a tedious affair and doesn't mean anything bad for us except having to possibly pay more in the end, but ya'll don't have to tell him, I do.

We didn't go back and get photos, the whole affair was because of the state of our car and we stopped driving it for more than a few miles at a time after that and got rid of it soon after. We no longer have a car.

Another point of consideration is that I'm not sure how to provide evidence regarding the mental health situation. I searched for similar situations in the forums and didn't find any. My partner has not been to the GP regarding his anxiety, though I do have a record of him going to Urgent Care for chest pains a couple years before the parking situation?

Redx

good idea to complain , but not too early if you wish to string it out ?

what was the date of the incident ? because 6 years is tne maximum allowed to chase it, so this year is the last chance for them , hence why they issued this one, despite covid

moonpie1963

27 September, so a bit of time left for them. Good idea to string it out for sure. Emailing the company and notifying DCB legal also by email is definitely considered to be proper acknowledgement of the LoC? So they'd be required to allow me another 30 days from the date of the email before filing the claim? Have I got that right?

Coupon-mad

Another point of consideration is that I'm not sure how to provide evidence regarding the mental health situation. I searched for similar situations in the forums and didn't find any. My partner has not been to the GP regarding his anxiety, though I do have a record of him going to Urgent Care for chest pains a couple years before the parking situation?

Show that record as evidence that his anxiety and chest pains/palpitations are long term and certainly meet the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010 - i.e. he has 'protected characteristics' and, given the time spent in the MSA was due to a flare up/medical episode (explain more) it is in fact illegal not to make 'reasonable adjustments' for him.  Such statutory adjustments include not just providing Blue Badge bays (irrelevant to someone with anxiety) but also removing non-physical barriers, including having a more flexible time limit policy, agreed in advance in anticipation that some people may need more time due to their medical needs. This is a legal duty under the EA 2010 and under the statutory EHRC Code of Practice for Service Providers (MOTO and the parking firm both being potentially guilty of an offence if this continues).

Tell MOTO that the current harassment is exacerbating the anxiety and they are jointly and severally liable for the aggressive actions of their parking agent who appears to be totally out of control during the pandemic. Since becoming 'GroupNexus' they have ramped up their harassment and there are reports of 2015 or later PCNs being dredged back up for hundreds of people and - particularly at this time of heightened vulnerability - no civilised Society would condone such business conduct.  This besmirches MOTO's good name and it  is all over social media and increasingly reported from people who were either protected by the Equality Act 2010 (as here) or sleeping, or both, and it is reprehensible that none of these cases appear to have been referred to MOTO for any level of checking or consideration of people's vulnerable position years later.   Add that this is not 'parking management' it's wholesale harassment which is both frightening and intimidating, and it must stop. 

Say something similar to your MP and ask them to write urgently supporting this shocking case, to the CEO of MOTO, please.

D_P_Dance

Have you contacted your MP?

KeithP

moonpie1963 said:

So they'd be required to allow me another 30 days from the date of the email before filing the claim? Have I got that right?

Yes, you've got that right.

Have a look at paragraph 4.2 of the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims.

Ralph-y

Moto Hospitality
Mr Ken McMeikan	Chief Executive
Email	Ken.McMeikan@moto-way.co.uk Ralph

moonpie1963

I've put together an outline for an email to MOTO based on @Coupon-mad 's response. Will this do the job?

• Call to cancel ticket and reconsider contracting with CP Plus
• Going against your word

                  Telegraph article, 2011

                  Stopping for a panic attack is safe driving

                  CP Plus refused plea without addressing the mitigating circumstances at all.

• Bad for business

                  CP Plus making claims against thousands of people = thousands of people avoiding MOTO services.

                  Easy enough to plan ahead to avoid MOTO services.

                                   Membury & Braywick instead of Reading

                  Receipts from the day proving our patronage

                                   Light day, we usually also shop at the M&S or WHSmith

• Unlawful

                  Time spent was due to a ‘flare up/medical episode’ related to protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

                  illegal not to provide statutory adjustments such as the removal of non-physical barriers (strict time limits)

                                   EA 2010 and EHRC Code of Practice for Service Providers

                  Both MOTO and CP Plus could be found guilty of an offense if the claim proceedings continue.

• MOTO is liable for how it’s parking firm conducts itself.

                  CP Plus is acting excessively aggressive in a sensitive time

                                   Exacerbating the anxiety of this person

                  MOTO’s good name is being besmirched by this behaviour

                                   Reports are all over social media of this and similar breeches

                                   No civilised society would condone the harassment and dredging up of cases from as far back as 2015 during a global pandemic

                                   These cases should have been referred to MOTO for consideration of vulnerability

                  This is not parking management, but wholesale harassment using fear and intimidation tactics.

Thanks again everyone, for your help, this is really heavily affecting my mental health.

KeithP

It is nigh on impossible to comment on that.
Show us the draft of your proposed email.

moonpie1963

proposed email to MOTO:
-----------------------------
RE: PARKING CHARGE NOTICE R/N: XXXXXX
Mr McMeikan,
I am writing to urge you to cancel this despicable parking charge that your so-called parking management firm has sent me. You should also strongly re-consider contracting with CP Plus, a reprehensible and discriminatory firm, in the future.

The parking firm’s practices cannot be good for the many businesses that operate within MOTO services or MOTO’s reputation itself. Thousands of people are currently being harassed and chased down by the parking firm, creating thousands of customers who will be no longer visiting MOTO services. You may have good coverage of the M4, but you do not have all of it. It is easy enough to plan ahead and make stops on either side of the Reading services, for instance, at Membury or Braywick.

It used to be common practice for us to stop at Reading before this parking charge fiasco. I’ve attached receipts to show that even when we were stopped unexpectedly and in distracting circumstances, we still patronised the businesses there. Normally we would have also purchased fuel and shopped at the M&S or the WHSmith.

Don’t let this affect your company’s reputation; allowing this charge to continue would go against it’s very word; in 2011 an article was published in the Telegraph where a MOTO spokesperson was quoted saying the company would not charge drivers stopping for ‘reasons of safety’. And yet at the time the parking charge notice was issued to me, I appealed with the parking firm explaining that I had stopped due to my anxiety making it unsafe to drive. 

It is not a stretch for any sane mind to understand how the extreme distress I was under that day could lead to unsafe driving, so how is it that CP Plus refused my appeal? In fact, they did not mention the mitigating circumstances at all in their refusal.

Consider also that it is unlawful to discriminate against the protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010, of which disability is one of those characteristics. According to the law, it is illegal not to provide reasonable adjustments for the disabled, such as the removal of non-physical barriers. In this case, the parking firm’s strict time limits is an example of a non-physical barrier. 

You can refer to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Code of Practice for Services, public functions and associations, where practices which unduly affect disabled people are defined as indirect discrimination. Both you and your parking management firm have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments to your practices and criterion, and I can absolutely provide to the court evidence of the long-term and substantially adverse effects my anxiety has had on me before and after the event of the parking situation. In the event of a court hearing, both MOTO and CP Plus could be held liable for such a discrimination.

Please consider how your company is liable for how CP Plus conducts itself in your name. The firm is acting excessively aggressive in a sensitive time for all people of the world. Can you imagine how this common, exceptional stress is affecting me, a person with long-standing anxiety problems?

MOTO’s good name is besmirched by this behaviour. There are reports throughout social media of this and similar breaches of good business conduct. No civilised society would condone the harassment of regular service-users in these times, certainly not to dredge up old cases from as far back at 2015, not during a global pandemic.

Cases such as mine should have been referred to MOTO for consideration and I ask you, was this one? How many others have not? How many more of the emails will you receive? How many will you not have received because the keeper or driver could not face the stress of standing up for their own rights?

This is not parking management, but wholesale harassment using fear and intimidation tactics against vulnerable people. Please stop it. Cancel my parking charge and do something about this ‘cowboy’ company now, before it’s too late.

Yours faithfully,

Coupon-mad

Yes throw it at MOTO. 

These latest claims are just obscene and MSAs must be forced to take responsibility for what the aggressive parking agents are doing to people during lockdown, for daring to rest at services, months or even years before.