Ancient CP Plus PCN that I was told was cancelled in 2015 now looking to go to court!

Ilovefreeparking

I recently received a County Court small claims form from CP-Plus regarding a penalty charge notice from 8th July 2015 (I really have no recollection this far back, but my email history has been very helpful as you’ll see).

I’ve submitted an acknowledgement of service and a subject access request on 27th April 2021 to begin preparing my case. Heard back from the SAR today with copies of the initial Charge Notice, Reminder and Legal Action Pending letters along with a response from CP Plus to Direct Collection Bailiffs that reads:

“Cannot access initial appeal and our response, but the notes state that we rejected their appeal on 9 Oct 2015”.

After a quick search of my email archives, I’ve found an email chain between CP Plus and myself that then continues on to Debt Recovery Plus Ltd who eventually come back to say they have cancelled the PCN on this occasion.

All the emails are in one chain with the CP Plus PCN reference up until (and including) 9th October 2015 when Ami Allen from DRPL advises:

“I have contacted our client about this and will write to you again once I have heard from them”.

But then her next email dated 12th October 2015 is on a separate thread of it’s own and has a 7-digit Parking Charge reference in the subject which doesn’t appear to relate to anything in any of the CP Plus correspondence. This is the email that says:

“Thank you for your email regarding the above Parking Charge Notice (PCN). I can confirm that upon instruction from our client, we have cancelled the above parking charge on this occasion. I have also noted our records to ensure that we do not send any further letters about this parking charge”.

I’m quite lost with this now, and not sure how best to proceed. I believe with my Acknowledgement of service on 27th April 2021, I have until 21st May 2021 to submit my defence.

Help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

Mike

D_P_Dance

Have you complained to your MP?

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Redx

C P Plus do not issue penalty notices , it was a parking charge notice , an invoice

nicestrawb

It sounds like they've got mixed up or worse (and far more likely), have actually forgotton what happened themselves and are chancing their arm! I assume you only ever had one parking charge that you were in dispute with them for and that wasn't related to a separate incident you were involved in? If not, then either they did cancel it but the 2 companies use a different reference number for the same event (which you might reasonably assume) or they've emailed you about someone else's ticket. Sounds like you're on solid ground though.

I'd be tempted to contact them directly and ask, pointing all of this out and highlighting that they might be able to save themselves significant time, money and embarrassment in court by addressing it properly. Either way they are almost certain to lose in court if you have proof of a cancellation and might even find themselves in trouble... If any of the above is true they will surely discontinue the court case before it happens but you'd be wise to get your defence ready just in case (since they've clearly been dumb enough to take it this far already).

D_P_Dance

If it went to court I would consider a counter claim harassment.

Half_way

D_P_Dance said:

If it went to court I would consider a counter claim harassment.

I would consider far more than that, GDPR for starters, inappropriate processing and retention of personal data without just cause.

Who's car park was this??

Coupon-mad

D_P_Dance said:

If it went to court I would consider a counter claim harassment.

100% yes in this case.  Absolutely crying out for a counterclaim for harassment and data abuse.  This data should have been wiped years ago!

To the OP, read the threads by @ellaro9 and @Nosy who both added counterclaims onto the bottom of their template defences.  Easy...  you can claim compensatory damages for harassment and abuse of your DVLA data when they should never have retained it.

Was the location a Motorway Services?  I don't expect MOTO will be very happy when you tell them (if it is them) about this data abuse, but get the defence and counterclaim in first so it can't just be cancelled.  Unless you have zero appetite for forcing a counterclaim to a court hearing and would rather the CEO of the Motorway Services heard your wrath and cancelled it like that have been doing on all the other CP Plus threads here for a couple of months.

Please also make a formal complaint by email to the DVLA Data Sharing team and tell them what CP Plus has done with your DVLA data.

Ilovefreeparking

Thanks for the responses, really appreciate all the advice!

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

The issue date was 21st April. I've had a proper read of the guidance on the form now so with the AOS filed on the 27th April, I believe the defence is due by close of play Monday 24th May?

Coupon-mad said

100% yes in this case.  Absolutely crying out for a counterclaim for harassment and data abuse.  This data should have been wiped years ago!

To the OP, read the threads by @ellaro9 and @Nosy who both added counterclaims onto the bottom of their template defences.  Easy...  you can claim compensatory damages for harassment and abuse of your DVLA data when they should never have retained it.

Was the location a Motorway Services?  I don't expect MOTO will be very happy when you tell them (if it is them) about this data abuse, but get the defence and counterclaim in first so it can't just be cancelled.  Unless you have zero appetite for forcing a counterclaim to a court hearing and would rather the CEO of the Motorway Services heard your wrath and cancelled it like that have been doing on all the other CP Plus threads here for a couple of months.

Please also make a formal complaint by email to the DVLA Data Sharing team and tell them what CP Plus has done with your DVLA data.

It was indeed a MOTO Services. I have made a complaint to DVLA Data Sharing team as suggested and will post any responses I receive.

I'd certainly be keen to pursue a counterclaim if I do have sufficient grounds to do so - do you have any recommendation on a reasonable amount to claim for - and what would justify it in my case?

I'm struggling a little with my defence; as I say, I have no memory of the original incident it was so long ago. My original appeal to CP-Plus looks fairly generic - (sum is disproportionate/no evidence of interest in the land/notice fails to comply with the POFA so no keeper liability etc). Rather than focusing on the parking dispute itself, should I be concentrating my efforts towards the fact I received the email saying the parking charge was cancelled? Is it worth me submitting a SAR to DRPL as well in order to confirm that email does indeed relate to the same parking charge? (@nicestrawb it should indeed be the only parking charge in dispute with them).

KeithP

Ilovefreeparking said:

KeithP said:

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

The issue date was 21st April. I've had a proper read of the guidance on the form now so with the AOS filed on the 27th April, I believe the defence is due by close of play Monday 24th May?

Yes, you are right with your Defence filing deadline, but there might be something useful here...

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st April, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 24th May 2021 to file your Defence.

That's less than four days away but still plenty of time to produce a Defence.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Ilovefreeparking

Thanks @KeithP, great to have that clarified!

Yes sorry I should have been more clear there, I've revisited the NEWBIES thread and am editing the 2nd & 3rd paragraphs to fit my case as directed. That's where I'm not sure wether to focus on the original event I have no memory of, or if what I'm defending is really be the fact that DRPL already emailed suggesting the parking charge had been cancelled.