Help needed VCS defence 9 February at 7:16PM in Parking tickets, fines & parking 4 replies 111 views

Albz00

Hi all, i parked at leeds bradford airport and received a pcn from vcs for my vehicle wheels being on the white marker of the very end bay, the reason of the pcn states vehicle parked beyond the bay marker when it is not, iv appealed against this on there website and got rejected, i then reveived a letter before claim of which i sent back disputing the debt. Today i have received a letter off of elms solicitors for debt collection or court proceedings i have rang and told them to put on hold as i have made a SAR. I dont know what to do in the meantime i am worrying about making a defence filling out court papers etc if they go ahead iv never done anything like this before where do i stand any help appreciated thanks.

B789

Have you read and understood what is in the Newbies thread near the top of this forum? If not, go read that thread first and then re-read it until you begin to understand the process. Once you've got a basic inkling of the process and the steps you need to take, you can ask more pertinent questions and the regulars on here will give you good advice.

In the meantime... when you first appealed, did you identify who the driver was? If you've not read the Newbies thread, you will know that that is just about the most common mistake that victims of these parking scammers make. No "I parked..." or "my wife parked..." and so on. You should only be using "the driver parked...". However, I suspect that it is too late in this case but I am ready to be proven wrong.

If this is at an on-airport car park, if you haven't identified the driver then you had a sure win. As you will know from reading the Newbies thread that airport land is covered by bylaws and is not subject to the Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) at is it not "relevant land" and therefore there is no way liability can transfer from the driver to the registered keeper. When the PPC obtained the keepers details from the DVLA, they did not know who the driver was. They cannot assume it was the keeper and it is up to them to prove who the driver was. You didn't give that vital bit of information away when you first appealed did you?

If you did, then this becomes much harder to defend but there are many defences we can use. It's just that the no keeper liability was a slam-dunk win.

Don't worry too much at this stage as it is not a criminal matter and, if or when it ever gets to court, it is only the small claims court which only deals with civil matters. It is just a disputed debt over the parking companies terms at the car park.

Can you post or provide links to the documents (suitably redacted of your name, VRN and PCN or claim number. Everything else is OK, especially dates)? The PCN, the Particulars of Claim etc.

Coupon-mad

That's not a breach at all!  Absolute scam, IMHO.

Same advice as here (another current Elms/VCS case):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79842171/#Comment_79842171

...except when you reply by email to the LBC, you will be robustly saying 'put up or shut up' and pointing out the car is not even parked outside of bay lines.  Say it like it is.  They would never win this in court!

Please see and adapt another robust LBC reply example linked in my advice here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79840745/#Comment_79840745

Absolutely tear into them when you get your LBC (please don't ask what LBC stands for...read the second post of the NEWBIES thread).  The charge is just laughable.

Stop phoning firms in a scam industry.  No advice anywhere on this forum has told you to pick up the phone to ring & chat to any of them.

Albz00

B789 said:

Have you read and understood what is in the Newbies thread near the top of this forum? If not, go read that thread first and then re-read it until you begin to understand the process. Once you've got a basic inkling of the process and the steps you need to take, you can ask more pertinent questions and the regulars on here will give you good advice.

In the meantime... when you first appealed, did you identify who the driver was? If you've not read the Newbies thread, you will know that that is just about the most common mistake that victims of these parking scammers make. No "I parked..." or "my wife parked..." and so on. You should only be using "the driver parked...". However, I suspect that it is too late in this case but I am ready to be proven wrong.

If this is at an on-airport car park, if you haven't identified the driver then you had a sure win. As you will know from reading the Newbies thread that airport land is covered by bylaws and is not subject to the Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) at is it not "relevant land" and therefore there is no way liability can transfer from the driver to the registered keeper. When the PPC obtained the keepers details from the DVLA, they did not know who the driver was. They cannot assume it was the keeper and it is up to them to prove who the driver was. You didn't give that vital bit of information away when you first appealed did you?

If you did, then this becomes much harder to defend but there are many defences we can use. It's just that the no keeper liability was a slam-dunk win.

Don't worry too much at this stage as it is not a criminal matter and, if or when it ever gets to court, it is only the small claims court which only deals with civil matters. It is just a disputed debt over the parking companies terms at the car park.

Can you post or provide links to the documents (suitably redacted of your name, VRN and PCN or claim number. Everything else is OK, especially dates)? The PCN, the Particulars of Claim etc.

Hi mate no iv not identified who the driver was, although i paid for a weeks parking there in my name dont know if this matters, all i put back to them was this debt is disputed vehicle is not exceeding the marker. I have been reading the newbies thread trying to take as much as i can in thanks. 

[Images not fully redacted. Removed by Forum Team]

Coupon-mad

Well you now know from the links I gave you, how to respond when you get the LBC from Elms.