DCB Legal Court Case - No PCN

bristollaughingman

A brief description of my situation, my car broke down in Nov 2020 at a services and I collected the next day, then in June 2021 I received a 'notice of debt recovery' from Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd.
Fast forward to today, it's now with DCB Legal and it's going to court, here is their most recent correspondence:

Good morning

Having reviewed the content of your defence, we write to inform you that our client intends to proceed with the claim. In due course, the Court will direct both parties to each file a directions questionnaire. In preparation for that, please find attached a copy of the Claimant's, which we confirm has been filed with the Court. Without Prejudice to the above, in order to assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, our client may be prepared to settle this case - in the event you wish to discuss settlement, please call us on 0203 434 0433 within 7 days and make immediate reference to this correspondence. If you have provided an email address within your Defence, we intend to use it for service of documents (usually in PDF format) hereon in pursuant to PD 6A (4.1)(2)(c). Please advise whether there are any limitations to this (for example, the format in which documents are to be sent and the maximum size of attachments that may be received). Unless you advise otherwise, we will assume not.

Kind Regards,  

 

(Removed by Forum Team) 

Litigation Assistant 

DCB Legal Ltd  

See my defence below, if someone is able to provide some advice that would be most helpful, fairly stressed about the fact it's going to court.

- Do you think I have a case, given the failure to provide a PCN within 14 days? i.e. confident I would win? I thought I would be but clearly they want to pursue even given my defence which I thought was good, maybe it's bully tactics

- I'm considering trying to settle, maybe for £150 or something, do you think that's at all wise? a) don't want to go to court b) afraid of losing. But this might be what they want me to think

Defence:

The claimant failed to provide notice (PCN) to the keeper (myself) 
within the relevant period of 14 days, the first correspondance I 
received from the claimant was threatening me with debt collection 
more than 6 months after the claimed parking violation, I then 
contacted the claimant via letter with the following communication 
(posted on 1st July 2021):

Dear CP Plus Ltd T/A GroupNexus,

I have just received a demand from debt collectors you appear to 
have engaged about a Notice to Keeper for vehicle VRM (Removed by Forum Team), PCN 
No. (Removed by Forum Team).

This is the first correspondence that I have received about this 
matter and as such you have failed to comply with the requirements 
of Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but 
not limited to, failing to deliver a Notice to Keeper within the 
relevant period of 14 days as prescribed by section 9 (4) of the 
Act. You cannot, therefore, transfer liability for the alleged 
charge from the driver at the time to me, the keeper.

Any further communication with me on this matter, apart from 
confirmation of no further action and my details being removed 
from your records, will be considered vexatious and harassment.

Kind Regards,
(Removed by Forum Team)

In May 2022 I received a letter from DCB Legal threatening me with 
legal action, I had at this point received no response to my 
letter to the claimant in July 2021. I sent this email to DCB 
Legal on the 4th May 2022:

from: (Removed by Forum Team)
to: (Removed by Forum Team)

date: 4 May 2022, 18:59

subject: Claim ref: 100875.46759D

Hi DCB Legal,

I contacted Cp Plus Ltd T/a Groupnexus in July of last year, to 
advise them I will not be paying them for the recovery of their 
PCN penalty as they failed to comply with the requirements of 
Schedule 4 of The Protection Of Freedoms Act 2012 namely, but not 
limited to, failing to deliver a Notice to Keeper within the 
relevant period of 14 days as prescribed by section 9 (4) of the 
Act.

Kind Regards
(Removed by Forum Team)

I have still yet to receive any response to my defence; that the 
claimant failed to provide notice of the violantion in the 
required period of 14 days, and in fact that the PCN was never 
received, despite my address being proper and correct at the time 
of the claimed violantion and the time since.

Any advice welcome really.

bristollaughingman

Also worried that if I admit to the parking violation that will be enough to lose the court case?

Umkomaas

Well recognised pattern emerging once again from DCB Legal. Look at the timeline of events in the list in the first post of the following thread and check where your case is now. Read on to see what the likely outcome will be. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

You must keep following all the required court processes to edge DCB Legal nearer to the discontinuation cliff edge. 

Coupon-mad

That letter is standard and is mentioned in the first 12 steps in the first post of the Template Defence thread. All expected.

Nothing has changed and you always have a case v a PPC!

You are not considering trying to settle. Resist that urge.  Wallet stays in pocket.

- Do you think I have a case, given the failure to provide a PCN within 14 days?

If you were not driving then 100% yes.

If you were driving then it will be down to unclear signage, as most cases are won on.

Not_A_Hope

I would recommend firstly you amend your post to redact any personal information (name, car reg Etc).

If you are relying on POFA make sure you don’t reveal who was driving when the vehicle broke down. I would send the PPC a SAR now. That should elicit what data they have on you and particularly where they allegedly sent the NTK. You can then check it for compliance with POFA.

Do you have any evidence of the car broken down? There is case law which suggests this might be considered ‘a small vicissitude’ and not parking.

Do you have any pictures of the signs at the services. If not get some. Which services is it? It has probably cropped up on here before. 

Have you tried complaining. Some services are more helpful than others

bristollaughingman

Thanks for the responses guys, very interesting to see that thread about pretty much the exact situation I'm in, does seem like they bully people into settling then usually pull out of the court case at the last minute. Unfortunately I was driving at the time so maybe the 14 day thing doesn't work in my defence, although with regards to the signage, I didn't actually go into the car park! I broke down at the services which doesn't have their parking notice / fine signage, so that'll help me if it does end up going to court.

Also seems like they've bolted on additional money to the debt / fine which I hear can also cause the case to be thrown out. I'll stick with it, I might not go down the route of SAR, trying to avoid this sucking up too much of my life, I'll just avoid settling and hope they get cold feet, if not I'll take my chances in court!

bristollaughingman

Sorry, meant to say, broke down at the petrol station.

bristollaughingman

Oh and I've also got some evidence that I did in-fact break down (a whatsapp message at the time), might give me that additional vicissitude defence.

Not_A_Hope

Defence:

The claimant failed to provide notice (PCN) to the keeper (myself) 
within the relevant period of 14 days, the first correspondance I 
received from the claimant was threatening me with debt collection 
more than 6 months after the claimed parking violation, I then 
contacted the claimant via letter with the following communication 
(posted on 1st July 2021):

If this is all you wrote in defence of the County Court Claim defence and you now are admitting to driving you might have shot yourself in the foot as you cannot rely on POFA and cannot amend or add to your defence

patient_dream

Without Prejudice to the above, in order to assist the Court in achieving its overriding objective, our client may be prepared to settle this case - in the event you wish to discuss settlement, please call us on 0203 434 0433 within 7 days and make immediate reference to this correspondence.

ll sounds very official but this is a copy and paste we have seen many times and we know what follows.
If they really think they had a case they would win, they would not be trying for a deal .... 

And ...."in order to assist the Court" ??? REALLY

Why are they trying to mug you and the court that their fake add-on is real and on top of that signing a statement of truth declaring the same ...... that certainly assists the court in dismissing their case

SO ..... TICK TOK TICK TOK ,,,,,,, WAIT and do not respond to DCBL

Le_Kirk

bristollaughingman said:

 I might not go down the route of SAR, trying to avoid this sucking up too much of my life, I'll just avoid settling and hope they get cold feet, if not I'll take my chances in court!

Submitting a SAR is not a waste of time and will give you additional info that you can use at WS time.  It takes minutes to submit as the template is already written in NEWBIE sticky or Legal Beagles Forum.  Just leave off that line about "if you want additional information to identify me"!