ccj for parking fine

Coupon-mad

Yes that looks suitable for your case too.

rms22

Coupon-mad said:

Yes that looks suitable for your case too.

Great, thanks. Once again I have to thank you for your time and help. I'm extremely grateful.

rms22

I've just received an email from CE with their witness statement, attached as a PDF, to this email:

Dear Sirs

Please find attached our Witness Statement for the Judge’s perusal at the upcoming hearing.

Yours faithfully

WITNESS STATEMENT OF XXXX

I, XXXX, of Civil Enforcement Limited (“the Claimant/Respondent” or, where relevant, “the

Company”), whose registered office is situated at Horton House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool, L2 3PF,

say as follows:

1. I am authorised by the Claimant and make this statement in response to the Application filed

by XXXX (“the Defendant/Applicant”): I am a barrister and the Head of Legal &

Compliance at the Company. I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.

The factual content of this statement has been taken from the Company’s internal data

recording and operating system. I can confirm that at the time of writing this statement, the

system was working properly and there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information

contained herein.

The facts of this case

2. At all material times the Respondent was authorised to manage the car park at the rear of

‘XXXX’ (“the Car Park”),

pursuant to the terms of a written agreement with the owners of the Car Park.

3. On the XXXX 2018, the Defendant was the registered owner of a vehicle with VRM XXXX 

(‘the Vehicle’). The Company requested registered keeper details from the DVLA on or about

XXXX 2018 and these were provided by the DVLA. Please note the following timeline of

events:

XX/08/2018: Date of violation

XX/08/2018: DVLA provide us with Defendant’s name and address

XX/09/2018: PCN sent – no response

XX/10/2018: Reminder – no response

XX/11/2018: Second reminder – no response

XX/12/2018: PCN transferred to debt recovery agent ZZPS Ltd

XX/02/2019: PCN returned by debt recovery agent ZZPS Ltd

XX/03/2019: Letter before action sent – no response

XX/03/2022: Claim issued – no response

XX/04/2022: Judgment in default obtained

XX/05/2022: Post CCJ letter sent – no response

XX/09/2022: Post CCJ reminder letter sent – no response

XX/11/2022: PCN transferred to debt recovery agent DCBL

XX/12/2022: Defendant files application to set aside Judgment

4. The Applicant states that correspondence was not served at his current address. The

Respondent had reasonable grounds to believe that the address provided was the Applicant’s

last known address pursuant to CPR 6.9. The Respondent cannot be expected to know or

suspect, without reason, that the Applicant has moved address under these circumstances.

The Applicant failed to promptly update his change of address with the DVLA pursuant to the

statutory requirements of the Road Vehicles (Licensing and Registration) Regulations Part IV

(18.1) which states that:

“If the registered keeper of a vehicle changes his name or his address, he shall forthwith notify

the new name or address to the Secretary of State and, except where the registration

document has been lost, stolen or destroyed, shall deliver the registration document to him.”

5. Notwithstanding the above, the Respondent consents to the application to set aside the

Judgment and agrees to the Claim being restored. Given the circumstances outlined above, it

is the Respondent’s position that the Applicant should be responsible for the costs of this

application. For the avoidance of doubt, this is because the fact that the Applicant alleges the

correspondence was sent to the incorrect address, as supplied to the Respondent by the

DVLA, was of the Applicant’s own making in failing to forthwith notify the DVLA of their new

address.

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for

contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement

in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

SIGNED: XXXX

XXXX

Barrister

Head of Legal and Compliance

DATED: 24 February 2023

B789

@rms22 please stop crossing out the dates. What is the point of that? They know who you are and are in communication with you about this. It just frustrates anyone trying to assist, especially forensically if precise dates are not known.

Without going back through the whole thread, what date did you move from the address they have from your V5C at the time of their DVLA KADOE request?

rms22

B789 said:

@rms22 please stop crossing out the dates. What is the point of that? They know who you are and are in communication with you about this. It just frustrates anyone trying to assist, especially forensically if precise dates are not known.

Without going back through the whole thread, what date did you move from the address they have from your V5C at the time of their DVLA KADOE request?

I can't remember the exact date, it was sometime in the third quarter of 2016.

B789

So, from September 2018 to March 2019, they sent 5 communications by post with no response. They also passed the debt to some scumbags and they sent any number of threatograms before handing back to the PPC.

Whilst you failed to update your V5C with the new address, did you update everything else when you moved? Did you register for the electoral roll? Did your utilities, credit/debit card, bank accounts get updated? Were you there to be found by a simple soft credit search for the princely sum of less than 50p?

At the time of the LBCCC, March 2019, would you have been found if the PPC had bothered to rely on anything other than the out of date DVLA V5C data?

In their WS, they say:

"The Respondent cannot be expected to know or suspect, without reason, that the Applicant has moved address under these circumstances." 

That is utter male bovine excrement. If they had had no response to their 5 previous communications over 7 months, then one would expect them to suspect that maybe the DVLA data was out of date and they should have performed a simple soft search where you were there to be found.

That's just one point you have to counter to prove that they did not serve the claim properly.

rms22

B789 said:

So, from September 2018 to March 2019, they sent 5 communications by post with no response. They also passed the debt to some scumbags and they sent any number of threatograms before handing back to the PPC.

Whilst you failed to update your V5C with the new address, did you update everything else when you moved? Did you register for the electoral roll? Did your utilities, credit/debit card, bank accounts get updated? Were you there to be found by a simple soft credit search for the princely sum of less than 50p?

At the time of the LBCCC, March 2019, would you have been found if the PPC had bothered to rely on anything other than the out of date DVLA V5C data?

In their WS, they say:

"The Respondent cannot be expected to know or suspect, without reason, that the Applicant has moved address under these circumstances." 

That is utter male bovine excrement. If they had had no response to their 5 previous communications over 7 months, then one would expect them to suspect that maybe the DVLA data was out of date and they should have performed a simple soft search where you were there to be found.

That's just one point you have to counter to prove that they did not serve the claim properly.

I've always been on and up to date with the electoral roll and yes, my bank account details have always been updated. I have my own business and so I've always had to ensure that any bank statements/correspondence get posted to where I am living. 

Same applies with water, electric and broadband companies. 

Coupon-mad

"XX/11/2022: PCN transferred to debt recovery agent DCBL

XX/12/2022: Defendant files application to set aside Judgment"

And that (November) was the first time ANYONE bothered to spend 28 pence on a bulk CRA soft trace to check your address.

Doing this AFTER getting a CCJ is not only unacceptable, unfair and disingenuous but it breaches the requirements of the CPRs and specifically breaches the BPA CoP, that I hope you put into evidence already?

Address check must be done before sending a LBC so if course CEL must pay your application fee, due to their conduct.  Be really clear on this at your hearing, because some Judges think it is OK for a parking firm to treat a DVLA car reg address as an acceptable address for service years later.

It IS NOT intended as a service address and never was.  DVLA know these are often out of date and they do not hold it out to be a service address.

Even more so, because CEL had no response from you, so right from 2018 there was 'reason to believe' this address might not be a valid address for service of documents and certainly not a court claim filed 4 years later with zero address checks.

rms22

Coupon-mad said:

"XX/11/2022: PCN transferred to debt recovery agent DCBL

XX/12/2022: Defendant files application to set aside Judgment"

And that (November) was the first time ANYONE bothered to spend 28 pence on a bulk CRA soft trace to check your address.

Doing this AFTER getting a CCJ is not only unacceptable, unfair and disingenuous but it breaches the requirements of the CPRs and specifically breaches the BPA CoP, that I hope you put into evidence already?

Address check must be done before sending a LBC so if course CEL must pay your application fee, due to their conduct.  Be really clear on this at your hearing, because some Judges think it is OK for a parking firm to treat a DVLA car reg address as an acceptable address for service years later.

It IS NOT intended as a service address and never was.  DVLA know these are often out of date and they do not hold it out to be a service address.

Even more so, because CEL had no response from you, so right from 2018 there was 'reason to believe' this address might not be a valid address for service of documents and certainly not a court claim filed 4 years later with zero address checks.

I haven't put that into words as such (the fact that they only did the soft trace after getting the CCJ as I haven't seen that timeline of events until that email and didn't know that they had done a soft trace check in November. 

I'll make sure I mention that the address check must be done before sending the LBC and they hadn't done this. In terms of backing myself up with this I should refer to 24.1c ;

"Before serving a Letter Before Claim, and prior to the issue of proceedings, Operators must, if no responses have been received to the NTD/NTK/reminder letters, take reasonable endeavours to ensure that the correct contact details for the person you are writing to are correct."

In terms of that, it's black and white that they didn't follow the code of practice and therefore the claim wasn't properly served isn't it ? - CEL have proved this with their email. They waited until November to do a soft trace but couldn't be bothered to do one before getting a CCJ in April.

With regards to the evidence I have submitted, they are:

Rental Deposit Repayment receipt dated 24/10/16 - proof of when I moved out of the address to where this CCJ was served.

Equifax Credit Report which shows the start date of my mortgage payments (16/10/20) at my address.

First Council Tax Payment at my address.

DLUHC Action to Recover Unpaid Parking Charges Excerpt 

Page 17 BPA CoP which states paragraph 24.1c

And the Skeleton Argument which has been filed and served.

Coupon-mad

I'll make sure I mention that the address check must be done before sending the LBC and they hadn't done this. In terms of backing myself up with this I should refer to 24.1c ;

"Before serving a Letter Before Claim, and prior to the issue of proceedings, Operators must, if no responses have been received to the NTD/NTK/reminder letters, take reasonable endeavours to ensure that the correct contact details for the person you are writing to are correct."

In terms of that, it's black and white that they didn't follow the code of practice and therefore the claim wasn't properly served isn't it ?

Yes - but only if you've put it into evidence.  That's why Brokenchief attached it to his skelly along with the 4 case authorities.