Help with county court defence wording re UKPC arking charge

Seslou

Hello, I am looking for help to draft my defence regarding a county court claim for a parking charge notice received in July 2019. UKPC are now claiming £306.20. 
Having lost appeals to UKPC and POPLA, I chose to ignore the collection notices on principle, the last one being received in July 2021 as I have since moved address.
The charge was issued on the basis that I did not register my vehicle details at the Superbowl premises in Macclesfield when collecting my son from an organised school activity.  Other parents who also received PCN's had successful appeals as they were able to provide a receipt from the school which was available on Facebook to which I am not a user. However, I did provide this information with my appeal to POPLA but they were unable to take this into consideration.
I appealed to the Superbowl for help but they did not want to know. In March 2020 Superbowl ended its contract with UKPC from the number of complaints is was received from its customers.
The signage in the car park was, in my opinion, not prominently placed, I took a video of this following my lost appeal. All other parents and teachers were not aware of the parking terms unless they had approached the till where they saw the screen to input the vehicle details.
According to the supervisor at the Superbowl an 8ft sign and an A-board had been in place in the building since February'19 but these were no where to be seen on the day of the PCN.
Superbowl informed me that UKPC were contracted due to the number of cars using the car park belonging to the Mercedes garage opposite, where I bought my Smart Car.
Could they be pursuing me on this basis thinking that I was an associate of the garage?
I have drafted the following defence, but need advice on what to remove and replace.
I have sent the Acknowledgement of Service to the court dated 24th Feb (the issue date was 17th Feb), and completed 1-3 on the defence template (below), which of the paragraphs 4 to 27 should I include?
Your help will be much appreciated.

  

DEFENCE

 

1. The parking charges referred to in this claim did not arise from the terms of a contract. The charge and the claim was an unexpected shock. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all.  It is denied that any conduct by the driver was in breach of any prominent term and it is denied that this Claimant Liability is denied.

 

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. It is admitted that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle

 

3. The Defendant attended the Superbowl site to collect her son from an organised school trip with the expectation from the school of collection at 7pm.

The Defendant entered the car park at 18.54 and parked in a space in front of the entrance.

Upon entering the car park, the Defendant did not see any of the Claimant’s signs and terms stating that the car park was ‘Registered Users’. The signs were not prominently displayed at the entrance to the car park or in the car park itself.

The defendant did not see any other signage upon entering the Superbowl building nor in the area where parents waited to collect the children.

Due to failings at the Superbowl, the children were not ready for collection at 7pm as they were still waiting for food and drink as part of their package. The defendant sat with other parents that were waiting to collect their children. It is understood that the Superbowl allow 11 minutes for drop off and collection but due to the delay the defendant was not able to collect within the 11 mins allocated.

The defendant left the Superbowl premises at 19.24 as soon as the children had finished eating.

The defendant’s son was a customer at the Superbowl but a receipt could not be provided at the time of the appeal to the Claimant as the school had closed for the summer holidays. The defendant found that a receipt had been available on Facebook to parents who had received a parking charge but as the Defendant is not a user of Facebook the Defendant was unaware of the availability of the receipt until the end of August. This came to light during a chance meeting with another parent who had successfully appealed the charge by the provision of the receipt as proof of his child being a customer.

The customer receipt was provided with the defendant’s appeal to POLPA, together with a copy of the successful appeal of another parent but this could not be taken into consideration by POPLA.

The Defendant re-visited the car park and establishment upon a failed appeal to POPLA. The Defendant noted that the entrance signs of the Claimant were not clearly visible to the drivers and appear to mislead customers due to their positioning.

The Claimant had additional signage during the re-visit by way of an A-board at the building entrance and an 8ft sign by the reception to inform customers to register their vehicle, these signs were not on display by the Claimant on the day of the Defendant’s parking charge.

KeithP

Seslou said:

I have sent the Acknowledgement of Service to the court dated 24th Feb (the issue date was 17th Feb)...

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 17th February, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Wednesday 22nd March 2023 to file your Defence.

That's nearly two weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence and it is good to see you are not leaving 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'.

Umkomaas

I thought I'd draw your attention to this fairly recent thread which you might have not yet seen. You must keep going through all the necessary court procedure phases, but the hope is that your case will follow the same pattern as all those detailed in the thread. 

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

Coupon-mad

It's nothing to do with thinking you might be associated with the garage opposite.  Basically your data is among tens of thousands of unpaid PCNs that UKPC are sitting on going back six years, and the batch yours is in hasn't been looked at by a human.  No thought involved. Nothing personal!

No-one has 'decided' your individual case is worth suing over.  This is how DCB Legal's "conveyor belt to CCJs" works.  They appear to actively want CCJs (IMHO) and 85% of cases achieve that because people don't defend.  Then they pass those victims to the bailiff arm at DCB Ltd who have been shown in more than one case, to add £200 for no reason we can fathom... what a business model though!

No wonder DCB Group mare making a mint.

The well-defended ones get discontinued, so if you do as we advise you will not even have a hearing!

Was this claim sent to the right address?

Copy the Defence by @Johny86 and change the facts (his was about B&M) because his defence use our template defence but with an extra section in paras 5-11. Copy that.

Coupon-mad

@Seslou how are you doing with this easy stage?

Seslou

Thank you for the links and advice.

Just to update, I submitted my defence on Monday before the Wednesday deadline.

I have received a voicemail from DCB legal today asking for me to call them.
Should I call them back or ignore the message. I presume they would be  calling to offer a reduction on the 'damages'

Thank for your help

B789

Seslou said:

Thank you for the links and advice.

Just to update, I submitted my defence on Monday before the Wednesday deadline.

I have received a voicemail from DCB legal today asking for me to call them.
Should I call them back or ignore the message. I presume they would be  calling to offer a reduction on the 'damages'

Thank for your help

Never call these scammers. If you really want to hear from them, email them and ask what they wanted on the phone but this is all part of the usual steps taken by the intellectually challenged staff at DCB Legal. Expect the inevitable notice of discontinuance soon.

Coupon-mad

Certainly no agreeing to pay anything.  DCBLegal discontinue claims when victims 'poker face' them.

Seslou

Today I have received an email  'Without Prejudice Save as to Costs' from DCB Legal. They are reducing the amount to £200 from £306. They have also left another voicemail.

I still intend to defend this claim.

Would I be correct in not responding? 
They have only requested a response to confirm agreement.

Thanks again.

B789

Seslou said:

Today I have received an email  'Without Prejudice Save as to Costs' from DCB Legal. They are reducing the amount to £200 from £306. They have also left another voicemail.

I still intend to defend this claim.

Would I be correct in not responding? 
They have only requested a response to confirm agreement.

Thanks again.

As advised already. However, you could respond by email with a "Without Prejudice" heading, telling them to go fornicate with themselves or words to that effect and you'll see them in court.

Excuse my facetiousness, but you can see where this is heading can't you? Did you read the thread linked above by @Umkomaas? 

Coupon-mad

Seslou said:

Today I have received an email  'Without Prejudice Save as to Costs' from DCB Legal. They are reducing the amount to £200 from £306. They have also left another voicemail.

I still intend to defend this claim.

Would I be correct in not responding? 
They have only requested a response to confirm agreement.

This is normal.

I did already say you poker-face them.