UKPC/QDR Solicitors County Court Claim

tuna1234

Hello folks.

I've received a county court claim with an issue date of 13th May 2022 for an outstanding parking fine from a Mcdonald's car park in March 2019.

I have emailed UKPC with a SAR - all they have provided are copies of two parking charge notice letters and two timestamped photographs of the vehicle with ANPR that show an overstay of 19 minutes.

I understand that I need to file an acknowledgement of service but I have no idea where to start with regard to filing a defence. I missed the early correspondence due to changing addresses, and now the amount on the county court claim form is £267 which seems excessive and would be difficult for me to pay in current circumstances.

I cannot recall signage with the alleged contravention being so long ago, and I do not live local to where the alleged breach happened, and so I don't know if I can rely on this for defence... 

Any help would be massively appreciated!

95Rollers

OK. You still have enough time to file an AoS.  Follow the newbie templates sections.

In regards to the fact you don't remember it - contact the parking company with a SAR of all details and pictures they have of your vehicle and yourself.  Do not disclose driver - contact them as they keeper.

Get onto Google Streetview and look for the site so you can see where any signs (or evidence of the lack of them) are.

Search the forum  (plus Google) with the name of the carpark as there will be no doubt other cases where you should be able to gain useful information to help your case. 

Umkomaas

I've received a county court claim with an issue date of 13th May 2022 for an outstanding parking fine from a Mcdonald's car park in March 2019.

Now you've provided us with the date of issue,  regular contributor @KeithP will be along later to provide you with a timeline that you will need to work to, please confirm whether you have acknowledged service, and if so, on what date please?

Interesting to see that QDR (who essentially provide debt collection services) are fronting the court claim - I don't think I've seen that before. Could we see a redacted (of any personally identifying data, including passwords) copy of the N1 claim form please?

Coupon-mad

QDR do run a few claims, including the Wilshaw case.

KeithP

tuna1234 said:

I've received a county court claim with an issue date of 13th May 2022...

With a Claim Issue Date of 13th May, you have until Wednesday 1st June 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 Wednesday 15th June 2022 to file your Defence.

That's 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.

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'.

patient_dream

Interesting that UKPC are using QDR ?  Normally they use DCBL but I assume they think that DCBL are doing a bad job for them.

two timestamped photographs of the vehicle with ANPR that show an overstay of 19 minutes.

As ANPR IS NOT RELIABLE you will need see the logs and calibration information. UKPC are known fraudsters for changing time stamps
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3229165/Is-PROOF-private-parking-firms-scamming-motorists-Drivers-say-timings-photos-doctored-legally-parked-cars-issued-fines.html

QDR are scamming you ....... you do not owe £267
QDR have added a fake amount which they have no legal authority to add and QDR will already know that government has banned these fakes and expect the parking industry to apply the spirit of the law.  
QDR ARE NOT DOING THIS and as a claim will be signed as a statement of truth, that person is ignoring government.  All this must be pointed out to the judge

QDR are owned by another legal called Wright Hassall so it must be assumed that Wright Hassall will not behave in the spirit of the law either
This is a case of the SRA bringing both firms under question

Here is a typical UKPC sign, standard stuff that's if people can read and see them

D_P_Dance

That sign appears tp be extremely high up, read this thread and complaiin to your MP.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading/p1p.

tuna1234

Thank you and everyone else for such detailed replies.

In my SAR to UKPC they said they did not keep machine data and were therefore unable to provide it.

My worry defense-wise is that I cannot get pictures of the signage. I also spoke to the manager at the McDonalds who seemed to believe that signage in the car park had been changed since the date of the alleged breach.

Basically do you think it is worth filing a defence in this case? I'm conscious that I will need to respond to the county court claim by tomorrow at the latest really.

KeithP

tuna1234 said:

I'm conscious that I will need to respond to the county court claim by tomorrow at the latest really.

Why is that?
I don't wish to pry, but without any other issues, you have four weeks to file a Defence.

Earlier today I wrote...

With a Claim Issue Date of 13th May, you have until Wednesday 1st June to file an Acknowledgment of Service...

followed by...

...you have until 4pm on Wednesday 15th June 2022 to file your Defence.

tuna1234

@KeithP I'm out of the country for two of those four weeks so will have little time to work on a defence, but perhaps I'm being overly anxious.

With regard to writing a defence, do you think it is best to focus on the unreliability of ANPR?

tuna1234

Here's the claim form in question