PCM - High Point Village/Hayes and Harlington Train Station PCN

ANON_MR_X

Hi all,

Firstly, my sincerest apologies for creating yet another thread as I'm aware it is frowned upon creating duplicate threads. However, I'm still a little confused and it was either this or hijack another thread which I'm aware is equally a peeve for forum members. Anyhow, I have read the newbies sticky thread and every other thread in this forum about this location (information overload). For the most part, it was very informative. Hence, thank you to all of you fantastic people. 

I was photographed at this infamous location recently by PCM. I was dropping my brothers family off to the train station so they could catch a train home. It's been years since I've driven to this location perviously and as I pulled into this location, I realised the usual drop off point was not there currently due to cross-rail works. All the available bays were full as somebody beat me to the last available bay. Therefore, my brother and his family jumped out, opened the boot to get their luggage and left as I was trying to read the signs (but I couldn't make out what was stated). Before I finished reading, I made a 3-point turn and left as everybody had vacted my car.

I received A PCN in the post for 'parking within a restricted area' with an online link detailing the photos they had as evidence. PCM have multiple photos of the above occurring. There is a time difference of 57 seconds between the first and last photo. I followed the forum advice and sent them the 'blue text generic appeal' from the newbies thread and unsurprisingly, the appeal was rejected. The rejection letter contained a photograph of my car, with a sign in the photo circled. However, the text on the sign is unreadable. 

From my understanding, appealing to the IAS is a waste of time. The reason I'm still confused is because of the following. From my understanding I now have two options:

1) Ignore all the subsequent debt collectors letters until when/if PCM proceed to taking this to court. I will then have have to prepare a case for defence.

or 

2) Pay these opportunist scammers which I feel I shouldn't do out of principle due to their predatory tactics.


Therefore, my question to all is as they have photographic evidence of me stopping to let out passengers (and not simply just doing a 3-point turn as in other successfully won cases on this forum), can I build a defence strong enough to be successful? If not, I guess I'll have to pay these thieves begrudgingly.

Also, should I go to the location and take photographic evidence of the signage incase it may be needed at a later date? In addition, any further advice will be very much appreciated. 

Thank you very much and apologies again if this new thread is annoying.

A    

Coupon-mad

ANON_MR_X said:

Hi all,

Firstly, my sincerest apologies for creating yet another thread as I'm aware it is frowned upon creating duplicate threads. However, I'm still a little confused and it was either this or hijack another thread which I'm aware is equally a peeve for forum members. Anyhow, I have read the newbies sticky thread and every other thread in this forum about this location (information overload). For the most part, it was very informative. Hence, thank you to all of you fantastic people. 

I was photographed at this infamous location recently by PCM. I was dropping my brothers family off to the train station so they could catch a train home. It's been years since I've driven to this location perviously and as I pulled into this location, I realised the usual drop off point was not there currently due to cross-rail works. All the available bays were full as somebody beat me to the last available bay. Therefore, my brother and his family jumped out, opened the boot to get their luggage and left as I was trying to read the signs (but I couldn't make out what was stated). Before I finished reading, I made a 3-point turn and left as everybody had vacted my car.

I received A PCN in the post for 'parking within a restricted area' with an online link detailing the photos they had as evidence. PCM have multiple photos of the above occurring. There is a time difference of 57 seconds between the first and last photo. I followed the forum advice and sent them the 'blue text generic appeal' from the newbies thread and unsurprisingly, the appeal was rejected. The rejection letter contained a photograph of my car, with a sign in the photo circled. However, the text on the sign is unreadable. 

From my understanding, appealing to the IAS is a waste of time. The reason I'm still confused is because of the following. From my understanding I now have two options:

1) Ignore all the subsequent debt collectors letters until when/if PCM proceed to taking this to court. I will then have have to prepare a case for defence.

or 

2) Pay these opportunist scammers which I feel I shouldn't do out of principle due to their predatory tactics.


Therefore, my question to all is as they have photographic evidence of me stopping to let out passengers (and not simply just doing a 3-point turn as in other successfully won cases on this forum), can I build a defence strong enough to be successful? If not, I guess I'll have to pay these thieves begrudgingly.

Also, should I go to the location and take photographic evidence of the signage incase it may be needed at a later date? In addition, any further advice will be very much appreciated. 

Thank you very much and apologies again if this new thread is annoying.

A   

It's not annoying at all and I'm sorry we missed your thread and didn't reply sooner!

You can always defend against PCM.  Others will add more to this I'm sure.  A notorious scam site.

ANON_MR_X

Coupon-mad said:

ANON_MR_X said:

Hi all,

Firstly, my sincerest apologies for creating yet another thread as I'm aware it is frowned upon creating duplicate threads. However, I'm still a little confused and it was either this or hijack another thread which I'm aware is equally a peeve for forum members. Anyhow, I have read the newbies sticky thread and every other thread in this forum about this location (information overload). For the most part, it was very informative. Hence, thank you to all of you fantastic people. 

I was photographed at this infamous location recently by PCM. I was dropping my brothers family off to the train station so they could catch a train home. It's been years since I've driven to this location perviously and as I pulled into this location, I realised the usual drop off point was not there currently due to cross-rail works. All the available bays were full as somebody beat me to the last available bay. Therefore, my brother and his family jumped out, opened the boot to get their luggage and left as I was trying to read the signs (but I couldn't make out what was stated). Before I finished reading, I made a 3-point turn and left as everybody had vacted my car.

I received A PCN in the post for 'parking within a restricted area' with an online link detailing the photos they had as evidence. PCM have multiple photos of the above occurring. There is a time difference of 57 seconds between the first and last photo. I followed the forum advice and sent them the 'blue text generic appeal' from the newbies thread and unsurprisingly, the appeal was rejected. The rejection letter contained a photograph of my car, with a sign in the photo circled. However, the text on the sign is unreadable. 

From my understanding, appealing to the IAS is a waste of time. The reason I'm still confused is because of the following. From my understanding I now have two options:

1) Ignore all the subsequent debt collectors letters until when/if PCM proceed to taking this to court. I will then have have to prepare a case for defence.

or 

2) Pay these opportunist scammers which I feel I shouldn't do out of principle due to their predatory tactics.


Therefore, my question to all is as they have photographic evidence of me stopping to let out passengers (and not simply just doing a 3-point turn as in other successfully won cases on this forum), can I build a defence strong enough to be successful? If not, I guess I'll have to pay these thieves begrudgingly.

Also, should I go to the location and take photographic evidence of the signage incase it may be needed at a later date? In addition, any further advice will be very much appreciated. 

Thank you very much and apologies again if this new thread is annoying.

A   

It's not annoying at all and I'm sorry we missed your thread and didn't reply sooner!

You can always defend against PCM.  Others will add more to this I'm sure.  A notorious scam site.

Thank you for your response. I've just seen this after receiving my first debt collectors letter and signing into this forum. I have chosen to defend against this scam and thank everyone posting in this forum that has given me the confidence to do so

SamDude

I'm not the OP, but have been sent a PCN for the same location (as the registered keeper noted in the PCN sent by PCM).

The blue template, which is worded for paid parking and overstaying 'incidents', does reflect that that this  particular location doesn't have any paid parking bays (so no PDT machines) - it is literally a "STOP - PCN!, WAIT - PCN!, TURN - PCN!" location.

Does my response need to be tweaked for this initial reply to PCM?
(or am I overthinking it and should just send the blue template 'as-is'?)

Coupon-mad

Overthinking it.  Whatever you send will be rejected.

ANON_MR_X

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Following on from my initial post from early 2022, I ignored all debt collectors letters and then stoped receiving them a few months after. I didn't receive any further correspondance for around 2 years so I thought this matter was all over. I threw away all the letters I received up to that point like an idiot.

Then on 6th August this year I received a letter from Moorside Legal informing me they had been instructed by PCM to recover an outstanding sum of £170. I assumed this was another subsequent debt collector letter so I ignored. 

Not long after, on 11th September this year I received another letter from Moorside legal. This was a Letter of Claim. I missed the wording 'Letter of Claim'. I assumed this was another debt collector letter to be ignored.

However, this morning, I received a claim from The County Court. Please see attached. My immediate response was to read newbies sticky thread. That's when I realised, from my understanding, I should have responded to the Letter of Claim.

I think I screwed up by not responding to Letter of Claim. Any advice on how to fight this will be very much appreciated.

Is it too late to respond to Letter of Claim? How to I respond to this Claim Form?

Apologies if I have overlooked something that should be obvious.

Thanks again,
A

Coupon-mad

No worries. Literally nothing to worry about!

Forget the LBC and just read the second post of the NEWBIES thread and do the AOS first, then use the Template Defence (the version for cases where the breach isn't pleaded).

This is all in the NEWBIES thread.

Gr1pr

The password wasn't redacted, or the QR code, but glad to see a few redactions were made 

6 years was the deadline to be sued, so a couple of years was neither here nor there, should have kept the paperwork, but no Biggie for these early stages, forget about the LBC error too, no biggie 

Get the AOS done online first, then start drafting your defence based on that specific template mentioned by coupon mad above 

When you show us your draft, only show the paragraphs you adapted, don't show us the rest of the template defence 

KeithP

With a Claim Issue Date of 21st October, you have until Monday 11th November to file an Acknowledgment of Service, but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

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

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 25th November 2024 to file a 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 guidance.

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

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

You need to be aware that those Particulars of Claim are totally inadequate.

So it is alleged that 'the vehicle was parked in breach the terms on the signs (the contract)'.

Nowhere in those Particulars is there any explanation of what the driver is alleged to have done wrong.

This will be an easy win.

ANON_MR_X

Major thanks for the responses. It is very much appreciated.

I filed my AOS yesterday.

Also, I have read the second post in the NEWBIES thread. 

KeithP said:

Nowhere in those Particulars is there any explanation of what the driver is alleged to have done wrong.

Interesting. I hope I'm right in assuming I add the paragraphs and judgments seen in the defence by @hharry100 to my defence if that is so, and cite the Chan case. Furthermore, my situation seems similar to hharry100's. Therefore I have slightly adapted this defence to use as mine. Trying to construct my own unique defence is proving to be difficult as my command of legalese is pretty poor.

Anyhow, my defence is as follows:

5. The Defendant had not noticed any signage close to the where he had parked his vehicle, showing the terms and conditions for use, the Defendant was not aware of any restrictions that applied at High Point Village due to obscure signage which was impossible to read from where the defendant had parked. The small signage was not suitable to alert a motorists. Due to the age of the alleged breach of contract which is nearly 3 years old the Defendant is unable to recall the exact reason for the PCN(s).

   
Do you think this would suffice?

Coupon-mad

Assuming?  I had already advised this:

"... just read the second post of the NEWBIES thread and do the AOS first, then use the Template Defence (the version for cases where the breach isn't pleaded)."