UKPC \ DCBLegal - CCBC Defence Question

NinjaNorm

Hey everyone!

Thank you for maintaining this wonderful resource and community. This is not the first time I've lurked in these forums but this is the first time I've had something get this far.

My defence is a perfectly honest account of what happened and unless advised otherwise by you, I intend to submit soon.

My question is that as I will be going on my honeymoon in a couple of weeks and I'm concerned that things will need to be responded to while I am out of contact, should I mention anywhere in this defence \ contact that I will be out of touch?

I received the Claim form from the CCBC in early January and submitted my AOS 12 days later.

My defence statement so far is below - what do you think?

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

3. The defendant attended the [redacted Leisure Park] on the evening of [mid] December 2017 to attend the opening night showing of [redacted].

Given it was the opening night of [redacted] he was not surprised to find the car park completely full.

Having spent over 20 minutes trying to find a free parking space (difficult in the dark, rainy conditions), the defendant chose to park on an embankment, being very careful to not cause any obstruction to a fire exit, a pedestrian thoroughfare or any other vehicle as the defendants offspring were becoming fractious and eager to not miss the start of the film.

The defendant attempted to locate any parking signage \ payment meter but none were visible in the dark, poor conditions and so, taking a final check to ensure that the parked vehicle would cause no problem for any other patron, proceeded into the Cineworld cinema.

The defendant was extremely surprised to find a penalty charge notice attached to his vehicle upon his return given that there were no obvious payment stations \ signage visible at the time the defendant left his vehicle.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Norm.

Trainerman

Have you been accused of non payment, no permit, not parking in a bay ...... or something else?

NinjaNorm

I thought I had covered everything in my post as well! :-D

The claim states breach of terms but yes, not parking in a bay

Trainerman

Right so a) you have signage not prominent etc ( as you saw no signs), and now possibly b) Terms not clear or hidden (if you have a sample sign to refer to). In any event, as is often said on here your defence needs to be short, punchy legal arguments. The above is more like a Witness Statement

1505grandad

"The defendant was extremely surprised to find a penalty charge notice attached to his vehicle......"

Are you sure?

Coupon-mad

Remove all this which admits the allegation of parking outside of a bay!  

Given it was the opening night of [redacted] he was not surprised to find the car park completely full.
Having spent over 20 minutes trying to find a free parking space (difficult in the dark, rainy conditions), the defendant chose to park on an embankment, being very careful to not cause any obstruction to a fire exit, a pedestrian thoroughfare or any other vehicle as the defendants offspring were becoming fractious and eager to not miss the start of the film.

Keep the defence more vague and just say no contractual terms were visible at all in hours of darkness, which is in breach of the BPA Code of Practice:

KeithP

NinjaNorm said:

I received the Claim form from the CCBC in early January and submitted my AOS 12 days later.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Upon what date did you file an Acknowledgment of Service?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

NinjaNorm

I was trying to keep the specifics vague  but I suppose it's difficult to answer the question about me being away without specifics :-) I will be back from my honeymoon on the 26th Feb. The issue date on the claim form was the 11th Jan and the AOS was filed today.

The particulars state "1. The Defendant is indebted to the Claimant for a parking charge issued to vehicle XXXX" and then further "The PCN was issued on private land..." 

Aah! I see what I did...sorry, not "Penalty", but Parking charge! It was private land, not government, council or anything. It was a leisure centre (food \ cinema etc). 

Amended defence...

"3. The defendant attended the [redacted Leisure Park] on the evening of [mid] December 2017.

The defendant attempted to locate any parking signage \ payment meter but none were visible in the dark, poor conditions and so, taking a final check to ensure that the parked vehicle was parked considerately, proceeded into the cinema.

The defendant was extremely surprised to find a PCN attached to his vehicle upon his return given that there were no obvious payment stations \ signage visible at the time the defendant left his vehicle and he didn't believe he had done anything wrong."

Again - thank you all for your valuable time being given to me - it's very much appreciated :-)

Norm.

KeithP

NinjaNorm said:

The issue date on the claim form was the 11th Jan and the AOS was filed today.

With a Claim Issue Date of 11th January, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 13th February 2023 to file your Defence.

That's three 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 at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline 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'.

Coupon-mad

Yes that is fine.

And submit it by email later rather than sooner (before your honeymoon but not this week).

Make sure you get an acknowledgement back straight away.  Then - by timing this defence a little later than now - you will know that you won't get a DQ N180 arriving & running out of time while you are away.

NinjaNorm

Thank you all for your help, and again, it is much appreciated :-)

I'll submit it closer to flying out and will update this post with the result. Hopefully, it'll follow recent trends and it'll be dropped with no fuss.

Cheers!
Norm.