Gladstone & District Enforcement - Am i doing this right?

philkr

Hello,

I have received a claim form from the lovely chaps over at Gladstone Crooks on behalf of the even nicer guys at District Enforcement.

Background: During the lockdown I was driving to my dads house to drop off his medicine as he was shielding, my clutch decided it didn't want to play any more and the car broke down, I didn't want to leave it on the road so I rolled it into my dads parking space at the back of the flats.

I didn't retrieve the car until a few weeks later when I could afford to get a new clutch (I work for the NHS and the pay is really bad)

The fines relate to being in the space for this time, so it appears they have issued two fines one dated 15/11/2021 and the other dated 22/11/2021

Issue Date: 9th June

Amount Claimed: £332.18

Court Fee: £50

Legal Rep Costs: £50

Total: £432.18

I've received no other communication from these guys at all.

I'm just trying to work my way through all the information on this site (thank you all for sharing) and believe these are the steps needed to be done:

1, As its been 5 (actually 6) days since the claim form has been issued I should go to the money claim website and complete the AOS and choose to defend all.

2, Get my defence together ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108153/template-defence-to-adapt-for-all-parking-cases-where-they-add-false-admin-costs-edited-march-2022#latest ) using this template and amended points 2/3 as needed.

3, Print the defence, sign the defence and date it

4, Send the scanned defence as an attachment to (CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk) during working hours and CC in the lovely people at Gladstone Crooks (Including the claim number in the subject)

5, Make sure I get an acknowledgement back from the CCBC

6, Wait for the Directions Questionnaire from the CCBC

7, Return Directions Questionnaire to CCBCAQ@Justice.gov.uk

8, Send copy of Directions Questionnaire to Gladstone Crooks (I can actually give this to them by hand, the office is literally a mile away from me, however not sure if this is recommended) WITHOUT using recorded delivery

9, Wait and hope for the best

Can someone confirm this seems correct, I am a bit overwhelmed and I know these horrible companies are relying on me to make the smallest mistake.

I will be working on my defence over the coming days.


Once again thank you to everyone on this forum for the wealth of information shared.



Not really related: I worked for Gladstone when they used to be called "Avlon", I worked in the post room and wondered just why we sent so many letters, I guess I know now.
Karma is here for me  

philkr

EDIT: I forgot to add that in the car park the signage is in no way illuminated and not very easy to notice in the dark.

Le_Kirk

You seem to have interpreted the NEWBIE sticky and template defence guidance perfectly.  The only point I would add is that you should check your MCOL status every couple of days to make sure they mark your defence as received and see when they send it to the claimant and when they issue the DQ to you.

philkr

Le_Kirk said:

You seem to have interpreted the NEWBIE sticky and template defence guidance perfectly.  The only point I would add is that you should check your MCOL status every couple of days to make sure they mark your defence as received and see when they send it to the claimant and when they issue the DQ to you.

Thank you for the speedy response.
I'll be working on my defence after work today.

Just one more question if you don't mind, The defence is to be emailed to the CCBC however there is also an option to submit this defence on the moneyclaim website, do I ignore this and go the email route?

Le_Kirk

Abso-bloomin-lootely do not do it on the MCOL site.  It garbles your defence, destroys the formatting and restricts you to 120 lines.  This is stated in the NEWBIE sticky.

philkr

Thanks, I must have missed that bit! 
I'll post a bit later on when I have a rough defence typed up

Once again, thanks to everyone on this forum for all the help, Honestly shocking that these bullying "companies" can operate the way they do.

Umkomaas

I'll post a bit later on when I have a rough defence typed up

Please just post the first few paragraphs you have constructed yourself. Please spare us seeing the 20+ further paragraphs of the template that @Coupon-mad wrote. 

KeithP

philkr said:

Issue Date: 9th June

With a Claim Issue Date of 9th June, you have until Tuesday 28th 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 Tuesday 12th July 2022 to file your Defence.

That's nearly 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'.

philkr

So I am struggling to make my defence sound professional.

Any pointers on how to word this better would be appreciated:

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper and drive of the vehicle in question.

3. The Defendant parked the car in his father’s parking space when the car had broken down, The Defendant was visiting his father during the COVID lockdown to deliver medicine as the Defendants father was shielding due to being classed as vulnerable.

The Defendant would also like to note the parking signage is not illuminated and was not visible as a result.

The Defendant has never received any previous letters from the Claimant.

Also I have snapped a photo of the sign at the car park below 




Cheers!

Coupon-mad

In 15 years of doing this I have never ever seen a BROWN sign!

Carefully/deliberately designed not to be seen and to blend in with the brickwork, a cynic might surmise.

What do you mean you parked when the car was broken down?

You parked when the car was OK then later discovered it wouldn't start?

Did you display a permit? Was a permit available?

Mouse007

If this was your father's (residential) parking space what does his lease say? If the lease does not require him to display a permit then you may have a very strong defence, see

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2016/11/residential-parking.html