3 year old PCN from dark industrial carpark - BW Legal / CPMS Claim

4am_uel

Umkomaas said:

Do you intend returning to live in England or Wales in the 6 year period ending after the date of the PCN (12/11/2024)?

I plan to come back to visit family, but in terms of living i will be in sweden for a minimum of 2 years or so but possibly longer. e.g. around 2024 minimum. Why do you ask?

4am_uel

Fruitcake said:

Following on from Keith's comment, did you use your address in Sweden when you did the AoS? If so, the court process should spot this and lob it out at some point, but you should tell anyone and everyone, starting with the rectification notice, where you now live at each and every opportunity.

No when I did the AoS I put my parents UK address down since they have been forwarding the correspondence on since then and though that would be easier. I now realise that was silly. I tried to go back on to amend the AoS but this is not possible on the MCOL website as far as i can tell. Does anyone have any advice on how to do this?

Coupon-mad

You can't really, not yet.  You must now do the defence and can't contest jurisdiction as you've admitted that UK address is good for service.

4am_uel

Coupon-mad said:

You can't really, not yet.  You must now do the defence and can't contest jurisdiction as you've admitted that UK address is good for service.

Ah okay I was afraid that might be the answer. I'll get to work preparing my defence and mention everywhere where possible that i now live overseas. Do you think its still worth notifying the DPO and PPC of my new Swedish address?

Coupon-mad

Yes I do, just didn't want you to lose sight of the priority of your defence.

4am_uel

Coupon-mad said:

Yes I do, just didn't want you to lose sight of the priority of your defence.

Great thank you. Here is what I have written for points 2 and 3. Any feedback from anyone would be much appreciated: 

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2.       It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question but liability is denied. The Defendant also admits being the driver of the vehicle in question in this case.

 

3.  On the November evening in question I drove to Manchester Academy of Gymnastics - the new training home of the University of Manchester Gymnastics Club which I was a member of. We trained in the gym each Monday from 7-9pm. The gym is located in an enclosed industrial warehouse feeling area with multiple parking areas available between the gym and other DIY and retail companies which were, as far as I can tell, not operational during the time of my visit. The car park was dark and poorly lit (I think there might have been no overhead lighting in the car park but i can't remember - check). This was among some of my first times driving there so pulled up and parked in the car park immediately to the left of the entrance to the gym, I saw a few other cars parked in this area and due to the dark night and poor lighting I didn’t see any parking signs which stated i couldn’t/shouldn’t park there. The car park was also extremely empty with most of the other lots for shopping being closed and out of hours, people typically only enter this area for Gymnastics at this time so I wasn't concerned that I was taking parking spaces from the surrounding lots. Soon after this I heard of other gymnastic members receiving parking charge notices for parking in this area, and was then advised by the gym to park in the spaces to the right of the entrance instead of the left to avoid this - which I continued to do every time from then on.

4am_uel

Should I be concerned at any questions i might get for why I ignored the requests for money for 3 whole years? I'm not sure what i'd say here except hoping they would just go away but that doesnt feel like a very good answer. 

Also should i mention I now live in Sweden in my defence?

Coupon-mad

Yes, mention you live in Sweden.

You don't need to make excuses for not responding to a known rogue industry who are now so out of control, having failed to regulate themselves, that the Government has stepped in.

The draft defence point 3 is too long and more like a witness statement.  Needs to be in the third person, not 'I'.

Read at least ten others to see how they put their point #3.  Claim threads are all over the forum.

4am_uel

Coupon-mad said:

Yes, mention you live in Sweden.

You don't need to make excuses for not responding to a known rogue industry who are now so out of control, having failed to regulate themselves, that the Government has stepped in.

The draft defence point 3 is too long and more like a witness statement.  Needs to be in the third person, not 'I'.

Read at least ten others to see how they put their point #3.  Claim threads are all over the forum.

Great advice! Ill do that and post the revised version when I have it

1505grandad

Also para 2  -  add "and driver" after registered keeper as you also deny liability as driver. Delete the second sentence of para 2.