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CIVIL ENOFORCEMENT LTD PCN to COUNTY COURT CLAIM FORM

24567

Comments

  • He's CEL's ex-Wonga barrister 'Head of Legal'.  Covered elsewhere on the forum.

    You DO NOT contact him (no point!) and this isn't your defence.  It's your partner's.  When you stated you were driving did you provide your postal address or not?
    Yes, I saw you found him on twitter and his association to wonga. I read that you send a SAR to CEL's DPO via email from the privacy policy and also to their solicitor. within which you ask for the case to be held for 30 days.

    I assume this is not relevant to my partner, although I don't know why not. He has sent the SAR to CEL's DPO so we'll leave it at that and focus on the defence. 

    Yes, this is his defence but honestly I'm doing the researching and putting a defence together as its my fault.

    I did confirm that I was driving. I gave my first initial, last name and full address.


  • "..... have completely disregarded me despite having the driver name."

    Did you also provide a serviceable address?
    Hi, Yes I did. They responded but addressed it to my partner, twice. they have never acknowledged me by name but did respond to my appeal.
  • TBrown302818
    TBrown302818 Posts: 69 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 11 July 2023 pm31 8:36PM
    B789 said:
    Is S. Wilson the legal rep for CEL from their own "litigation department"?

    In the defence you need to highlight that the claimant has no cause of action as they were given the drivers details and have instead sued the RK.
    Yes he is but I couldn't find how to send him a SAR. I've since been advised to leave that alone so we don't need the contact details anymore
  • B789
    B789 Posts: 3,441 Forumite
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    You need to SAR CEL to show that you did give them the drivers details and that they have ignored that information and so have no cause of action against the RK.

    There is no solicitor firm involved with this claim. They are using their own solicitor or legal rep who works for them.
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 144,432 Forumite
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    edited 11 July 2023 pm31 11:16PM
    B789 said:
    You need to SAR CEL to show that you did give them the drivers details
    Maybe - but that can wait.

    Defence MUST be done on time.

    I did confirm that I was driving. I gave my first initial, last name and full address.
    By email and you have a copy?

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  • B789 said:
    You need to SAR CEL to show that you did give them the drivers details
    Maybe - but that can wait.

    Defence MUST be done on time.

    I did confirm that I was driving. I gave my first initial, last name and full address.
    By email and you have a copy?

    I used their onilne portal to inform them
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 144,432 Forumite
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    edited 17 July 2023 am31 11:26AM
    Ok, so the named Defendant (keeper?) states that in their draft paragraphs 2 & 3 to add into the defence by @Johny86 which will suit a CEL Claim.
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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  • Ok, so the named Defendant (keeper?) states that in their draft paragraphs 2 & 3 to add into the defence by @Johny86 which will suit a CEL Claim.
    Sorry, not sure I am following.
    Yes the named defendant, (my partner) is the registered keeper, I was the driver.

    I went to Johnny86's profile and found a defence letter. 

    Please see below the defence my partner hopes to use:

    Defence

     

    IN THE COUNTY COURT

    Claim No.: XXXXXXXXX

    Between

    Civil enforcement ltd

    (Claimant) 

    - and -  

    XXXXXXXX

     (Defendant)

    _________________

    DEFENCE

    1.         The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all

    2.         The Defendant was the registered keeper of the vehicle XXXX XXX in question at the time of the alleged incident.

    The Defendant was not the driver.

    3.       When the PCN was received by the Defendant, details of the driver were provided to civil enforcement ltd via their website as detailed on the PCN. Civil enforcement ltd have never contacted the driver nor transferred liability.

    4.       The Driver entered the site by mistake, following Satellite navigation into a tightly packed car parking area enclosed at the back of several complexes of high-rise flats.  The driver drove through the area to find a safe place to turn around and exit.  The driver looked for signs of conditions of parking to safely reset the satellite navigation before leaving but there was none. 

    The driver managed to find a safe area at the back of the car park, there was a small sign in the distance. The driver then walked to the sign to read it. The sign informed to call a telephone number for terms of parking. The driver remained in a space, not an allocated parking bay, whilst attempting the telephone number on the sign. The telephone line was not staffed and there was no information given on the automated service.

    The Driver then navigated back through the area and left.

    5.         The Claim Form issued on the 21 June 2023 by civil enforcement ltd was not correctly filed under The Practice Direction as it was not signed by a legal person. The claim does not have a valid signature and is not a statement of truth. It states that it has been issued by Civil Enforcement Limited as the Claimant’s Legal Representative. Practice Direction 22 requires that a statement of case on behalf of a company must be signed by a person holding a senior position and state the position. If the party is legally represented, the legal representative may sign the statement of truth but in his/ her own name and not that of their firm or employer.

    6          It is believed that it will be a matter of common ground that claim relates to a purported debt as the result of the issue of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) in relation to an alleged breach of the terms and conditions by the driver of the vehicle XXXX XXX when it was parked at XXXX XXXX XXXX

    6.1       The claim appears to be based upon damages for breach of contract. However, it is denied any contract existed. Accordingly, it is denied that the Defendant breached any contractual terms, whether express, implied, or by conduct.

    7.         Further and in the alternative, it is denied that the terms on the Claimant's signage are also displayed in a font which is too small to be read from a passing vehicle, and is in such a position that anyone attempting to read the tiny font would be unable to do so easily. It is, therefore, denied that the Claimant's signage is capable of creating a legally binding contract.

    8.         The Particulars of Claim state that the Defendant was the registered keeper and/or the driver of the vehicle(s). These assertions indicate that the Claimant has failed to identify a Cause of Action, and is simply offering a menu of choices. As such, the Claim fails to comply with Civil Procedure Rule 16.4, or with Civil Practice Direction 16, paras. 7.3 to 7.5. Further, the particulars of the claim do not meet the requirements of Practice Direction 16 7.5 as there is nothing which specifies how the terms were breached.


    No standing or landowner authority

    9.         The Claimant is put to strict proof that it has sufficient proprietary interest in the land, or that it has the necessary authorisation from the landowner to issue parking charge notices under defined parameters and to form/offer contracts in their own name, and to pursue payment by means of litigation.


    No legitimate interest or commercial justification

    10.       It is the Defendant's case that there can be no legitimate interest or commercial justification in pursuing defendant for a hundredfold penalty, for the ordinary and reasonable conduct explained in this defence.

    10.1     The penalty represents neither a necessary deterrent, nor an understandable ingredient of a scheme serving legitimate interests, and the Beavis case is distinguished.


    Unconscionable sum claimed - double recovery - abuse of process

     

    11.       The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, at Section 4(5) states that the maximum sum that may be recovered from the keeper is the charge stated on the Notice to Keeper, in this case £100.

     

    11.1     In addition to the original parking charge, for which liability is denied, the Claimant has artificially inflated the value of its claim by adding purported but unsupported damages, admin, debt collector and interest, which the Defendant submits have not actually been incurred at all. The claim flows from an alleged (already hugely inflated) contractual parking charge of £100 but the sum on the claim form is more than two times this sum. The Defendant avers that this inflation of the considered amount is a gross abuse of process

     

    12.       The Claimant is a serial offender on this regard and must be well aware that CPR 27.14 does not permit such charges to be recovered in the Small Claims track. According to Ladak v DRC LocumsUKEAT/0488/13/LA the Claimant can only recover the direct and provable costs of the time spent on preparing the claim in a legal capacity, not any administration cost

     

    12.1     The Defendant denies any liability whatsoever to the Claimant in any matter and asks the Court to note that the Claimant has failed to disclose any cause of action in the Claim Form, where the sparse cut & paste particulars are embarrassing and give rise to no recognisable claim in law

     

    13.       When Directions are given, the Defendant asks that there is an order for sequential service of witness evidence (rather than exchange) or alternatively, for the hearing fee to be ordered to be paid before exchange of documents between the parties, because where a claim from this serial Claimant is robustly defended, this Claimant routinely discontinues after seeing a Defendant's Witness Statement and never pays the court hearing fee

     

    14.       It is an unfair burden and a complete waste of time for the Defendant to spend hours on their defence against a vexatious litigant who then discontinues. Research shows that this Claimant is regularly observed as being in pursuit of default judgments to use as an aggressive form of debt collection, with no intention of paying for or attending the majority of hearings

     

    15.       In summary, it is the Defendant's position that the claim discloses no cause of action, is without merit, and has no real prospect of success. Accordingly, the Court is invited to strike out the claim of its own initiative, using its case management powers pursuant to CPR 3.4.

    I invite I believe the facts contained in this Defence are true.

    Name

    Signature

    Date:



    I have read a lot of threads and have lost a post that spoke of quoting a particular case. Something about all judges having access to the case. I believe within that post it also mentioned about the tacking on of additional costs by PPC's to be outlawed

    Apologies if I've left personal details within. This is my 17th draft.

    Would greatly appreciate some guidance. Sending the SAR to CEL's DPO now

    Many thanks
  • B789
    B789 Posts: 3,441 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    You should be using the johny86 version of the template defence. You have not done so. You need only add your paras #2 and #3. Keep them short and punchy. You don't need to write War & Peace. Your defence is a series of legal "hooks" that you will later expand on in your WS.

    You only need to state why you were at the location. You are answering the detail (or lack of it) in their PoC. Don't make their case for them.

    This is an example of the defence template you should be using:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/5r7vbqttho3q948/2023 defence.pdf?dl=0
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 144,432 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I went to Johnny86's profile and found a defence letter. 
    Yep, a recent one from this year with extra paragraphs 5-11 that I advised you to add to the forum's Template Defence.

    Your draft is not based on either of them.
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
    CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
    Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD
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