LBC advice for driver who 'possibly accepted guilt'

kensiko

Hello all!

I have helped a few people over the years with standard PCN's and am happy to report a 100% winning record against all PPC's involved.

However, these have all been almost instantly know about and the simple letters have done the trick.  I have now been contacted by somebody who received a PCN last October and has tried their best unfortunately to handle it themselves.

This has led to them to now being terrified of a LBC in the post. I have calmed them down and advised this is the game they play.  I am now helping them out, but this is a first for me as I've never got to this stage before, although I have read the newbies guide for this new venture!!

It's difficult to know what's happened over the months since the PCN but the person in question has moved house and has made a few phone calls to different people but doesn't know who.  They said at one point they received an email off 'someone' advising the PCN was cancelled but this has been deleted and after another phone call (I know I know!) no-one seems any the wiser as to who sent it or why.

I realise this is all very vague but this is all I have to go on apart from the LBC which is bog standard it seems but I did notice this area of slight concen:


I am assuming one of the letters/emails/phone calls has led them to admit everything as they did tell the company they would pay the £35 (which is now almost £300) but during house moves and other life getting in the way, my friend doesn't remember seeing anything as to how to pay them. This, along with the mysterious email they assumed everything was fine until the LBC arrived out of the blue.

I realise this is just a standard LBC but with it having this little bit of extra info about the driver agreeing to pay, does it cause any extra hurdles?

In the first instance I will be emailing the DPO of the PPC as advsied on the newbies thread with the below.  I'd appreciate a quick confirmation this all seems OK for a start.

********************

PCN: XXXX

Date of PCN: XX/10/2022

Dear Sir or Madam

Subject access request (Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR))

[FULL NAME AND CURRENT ADDRESS]

Previous Address at date of PCN:

[PREVIOUS ADDRESS]

Please supply ALL the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law relating to myself.

This may include, but not limited to the following:

- ALL photos taken

- ALL letters sent and received to/from both addresses above

- ALL emails sent and received

- ALL telephone calls made and received which your company has recorded

- as the parking referenced in the PCN is Pay and Display, please supply the PDT machine record from the PCN date of payments made (you may partially redact VRNs).

- all evidence you will rely on, and a full copy of the PCN and NTK

I have attached the V5C of the vehicle in question on the PCN for identification purposes.

If you need any more data from me to confirm my identity please let me know as soon as possible. 

It may be helpful for you to know that data protection law requires you to respond to a request for data within one calendar month.

If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member. 

If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you. Its website is ico.org.uk or it can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

Kind Regards

[NAME]
********************

Apologies for the long post and many thanks in advance for any advice given.

All the best

KeithP

That "the driver agreed to pay within 28 days but did not" statement is seen on almost every parking Claim Form.

The allegation is that by parking the driver agreed to the terms of the contract.

Those contract terms are the terms on the signs.

Almost certainly there is a term on the signs stating something like "if the driver doesn't park in accordance with the rules then he agrees to pay £nn within 28 days...".

Umkomaas

Is this a UKPC/DCB Legal case?  The photo you've added above isn't from a LBC, that's from a real live court claim. Can you give us the Date of Issue shown on it, whether the claim has been acknowledged (AOS) and if so, on what date. 

By the way, what is this in a business letter?

Kind Regards

[NAME]

If it is a UKPC/DCB Legal claim, leave the SAR alone. The claim will be defended against the Particulars of Claim (PoC) only - which are  woefully short of detail, so the fewer details the defendant has, the better they are to defend against the PoC. 

Coupon-mad

That's not a LBC.  That's not your contact's stage.  Don't send a SAR. 

Please read only the section about defending court claims in the NEWBIES thread.  Not LBC stage.

kensiko

Hi all

Thanks very much for the responses to everyone.

I am not sending anything just yet until I fully understand the situation as it's been drip fed to me.

It seems I may have misunderstood and you are all correct which is incredible just off one small screenshot of part of a letter.

I have been given the following, and I thought the last 4 pages were sent at the same time as the LBC letter, but it would seem not.  My friend seems to have let this go on longer than it should have.  I received all these all at the same time and assumed they all came together.  I haven't had confirmation yet, but probably they didn't!!!!
Unfortunately I cant see the date of the letter in the first image.



The part I have circled above is the screenshot in the original post.




As you can see the issue date is 16th June so is this all too late?

This has definitely not been responded too and the AOS section never filled in.

PS  The 'kind regards' was just me on autopilot as I was drafting up the email which is how I would normally end rather than an official letter, but it would have been changed when I spotted it 

Thanks again everybody!  Much appreciated, and I am learning more on this one.

Umkomaas

As you can see the issue date is 16th June so is this all too late?

This has definitely not been responded too and the AOS section never filled in.

You (your 'client') need to check the MCOL history on this to see the current status of the claim. I suspect that as the deadline for AOS has long passed, DCB Legal will have filed for a judgment in default, and a CCJ is about to catastrophically trash his credit rating for the next 6 years. Urgency in checking this out is more than urgent! ‼️ Come back to tell us the position to see if we can rescue this, or at least minimise the potential damage. 

KeithP

kensiko said:

As you can see the issue date is 16th June so is this all too late?

With a Claim Issue Date of 16th June you had until Wednesday 5th July 2023 - to file an Acknowledgment of Service but that didn't happen.

Since 4pm on Wednesday 5th July the Claimant has been free to seek a Default Judgment against you.

If they seek and get that Judgment before you have filed a Defence, then they win the race - it's game over - you lose.

Check your MCOL Claim History to see if there is already a Judgment against you. 
If there is, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

On the other hand if you file a Defence before the Claimant actually seeks and gets that Default Judgment, then you win this heat and go through to the next round and I suggest you aim to file a Defence before 8am on Monday morning.

To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

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'.

Everywhere I have written 'you' or 'your' I do of course mean the named Defendant.

Coupon-mad

They could put most of the Template Defence in on MCOL this weekend to slam the door on any possible default judgment.

That is immediate BUT DON'T LET THEM JUST PUT ANY OLD WORDS IN!

They could do it tomorrow as long as MCOL doesn't already say they have a default CCJ.

Sadly it's been over a month since the court claim so I suspect they have already got a default CCJ.

kensiko

Oh my word!  I have just spoken to my friend and now have understood the situation in full.

The first image LBC was actually sent to my friend on 15th May - unbelievable.

I thought these were all one letter but have now realised (as you all already know) that these were 2 different things.

The May LBC obviously has been and gone where I could have sent the SAR.
The actual claim from 16th June is now well past its sell by date as well.

Unfortunately this is not looking good for my friend but they keep on saying when they got the court letter they kept ringing the parking company.  Having now explained it to them they realise they should have filled in the AOS!

This might be one of those ones where they prey on people that don't understand what is happening and then leave it far too late. 
They did say the rang the parking company this week and they advised 'the court decision has already ben made'.  This is probably what made them ask me the question in the first place.

It's not looking good unfortunately.
I suspect with it now being over 2 weeks since the deadline there is nothing that can be done but I will go through the previous posts and look into it.

kensiko

Just a quick update.

I have spoken with my friend and although upset as they thought they were doing the right thing, although not knowing what goes on in the background, they are OK with it all.
They are of an age where credit ratings aren't really an issue and they wouldn't be looking for loans etc at any point.

I do have a couple of questions:
1. Can the legal team/PPC try to claim the £300 at any point in the future?  Or does a CCJ null and void everything?
2. Apart from the obvious loans etc, can a CCJ effect anything else that they should be aware of?

Thanks again for the assistance on this one, it's just a shame it was mentioned far too late, all for the sake of a £35 PCN which they would have paid anyway.

KeithP

kensiko said:

1. Can the legal team/PPC try to claim the £300 at any point in the future?  Or does a CCJ null and void everything?

Of course the Claimant can try to enforce the Judgment. There would be no point in a Judgment otherwise.

Have you confirmed with your friend that a Judgment has actually been made - by checking their MCOL Claim History?
Very unlikely that the Claimant forgot that, but worth checking.