Defence help!

Charlsg17

Hi, 

I've looked at loads of defences and cases over and over again. But mine seems so insignificant compared and i'm unsure if i've written enough within this template or if there is other things that need to be included. Sorry if I sound stupid but feeling slightly overwhelmed. Wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Little background, I was at University up in Colchester and I received a PCN whilst parked outside of a hairdressers getting my haircut. I was told by the hairdresser that it was fine to park anywhere. When I noticed the PCN upon leaving I went back in and explained to the hairdresser I had a ticket. She said not to pay it, they try it on with loads of people just ignore it, there's no clear marked bays etc etc. The PCN i received was "for not being correctly parked within marked out bays" which in fact were not marked out at all. I then received multiple letters to my home address years later after leaving University. The PCN was dated 29/01/2018, I ignored all of the letters sent to me as instructed by the hairdresser. I even looked up UKPC and all the debt collector letters that had been sent and pretty much everyone said ignore them. Till recently as of 10/12/2021 I received a letter of claim from DCBL, again looked this up here and found not to ignore and to read the newbies thread on how to deal with it. This brings me to now, I sent for a SAR and have received pictures and evidence that they have on me. I have been going through the newbies defence template and am just unsure if this is the type of thing i need to explain? There isn't much to it and i'm just abit stuck to be honest. Here's the photos again:

And here is the defence:

The facts as known to the Defendant:

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

3. The Defendant had a haircut appointment, whereby he needed to park his car for a very short period of time outside of the barbers. The Defendant had parked in what he assumed to be a parking space. Upon returning to his car the Defendant noticed he'd received a PCN. He took the PCN back to the barbers and explained the situation to the hairdressers. He was told that many people had received tickets recently and to ignore the ticket. The hairdresser explained that they have no authority and that there are no clear marked signage or bays. The Defendant questioned the reasoning of not being correctly parked within the bays as it was totally clear that there are no marked bays, and no markings which indicated where you could and could not park. The small signage was not suitable to alert a motorist. The Defendant avers that the parking signage in this matter was, without prejudice to his/her primary defence above, inadequate.

4. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  To pre-empt the usual template responses from this serial litigator: the court process is outside of the Defendant's life experience and they cannot be criticised for adapting some pre-written wording from a reliable advice resource. The Claimant is urged not to patronise the Defendant with (ironically template) unfounded accusations of not understanding their defence. 

Obviously the rest of the defence i've taken from the template and left unchanged, sorry for the long post hope someone could help.

Thanks in advance.

KeithP

This seems to be s continuation of the saga started on your December 2021 thread.

Please continue all discussion about that parking incident and its consequences on the one thread. Thanks.

You make no mention of having received a County Court Claim.
Why are you preparing a Defence?

Charlsg17

Sorry, i'll pop it in there and delete this!

Fruitcake

Rather than refer to no bay markings visible, I would suggest that the claimant's own images showing the long rectangular pavers/slabs on the driver's side of the car, the thin concrete slabs/pavers behind, the pavement on the passenger side, and the pole at the front showed that the vehicle was clearly parked in a marked bay.

You also need to change "they had no authority" to either UKPC or "the claimant" as otherwise it reads as though the barber's shop has no authority.

Charlsg17

Fruitcake said:

Rather than refer to no bay markings visible, I would suggest that the claimant's own images showing the long rectangular pavers/slabs on the driver's side of the car, the thin concrete slabs/pavers behind, the pavement on the passenger side, and the pole at the front showed that the vehicle was clearly parked in a marked bay.

You also need to change "they had no authority" to either UKPC or "the claimant" as otherwise it reads as though the barber's shop has no authority.

Thanks for your reply, i have adjusted the paragraph as you suggested within the original thread. If you wouldn't mind jumping over to that one! Thankyou.

Here is the link to the original thread:

 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6320538/letter-of-claim-dcbl