County Court Claim

newuser8

Hi all,

I am new here and hoping to get some advice and help on completing my defence statement for a county court claim made by parking eye for a parking fine issued to me back in August last year. I made an appeal to POPLA which was unsuccessful. I was requested to pay a £100 fine which I refused. Parking eye have now issued me with a county court claim.

The summary of my PCN is for underpaying for the duration of my stay at Barnet Hospital car park. Parking Eye state I should have paid for 1hr and 28 minutes instead of an hour. I made 2 entries into the car park. The first entry was to drop my mother at Barnet Hospital and I was there for barely there for 2 minutes and existed the car park. On my second entry I parked for about 13 minutes and paid the minimum 1 hour charge. Something to note is that when I originally entered my car reg the charge displayed was for an hour and when I attempted to pay, the payment terminal malfunctioned so I had to started again and manually enter my time of entry and the same charge was calculated for a minumum 1 hour stay. I didn't really understand why I received a PCN and didn't make a strong appeal to POPLA other than saying I paid the amount displayed when I entered my car reg to validate my parking and challenged that I was not parked for an hour and 28 minutes as stated by Parking Eye. I didn't make it clear to POPLA that I entered the car park twice and their ANPR camera didn't record both entries in my original appeal and only stated it when I was asked to comment on PE's evidence so I think that might have been why got rejected as they said they could consider new claims at evidence stage.

What I would like to know is if I can use the defence template for my own situation as I will be using the fact that I entered the car park twice and this was not captured by PE's ANPR camera.
Thanks

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your Claim Form?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do so?
Your MCOL Claim History will have the definitive answer to that.

newuser8

The issue date is 08/01/2024. I filed an acknowledgement of service on the 18/01/2024 via post.

KeithP

newuser8 said:

The issue date is 08/01/2024. I filed an acknowledgement of service on the 18/01/2024 via post.

It's entirely up to you of course, but rather than rely on what some consider at best a flaky postal system at the CNBC, I would suggest you now file an Acknowledgment of Service electronically as described below. Should only take a few minutes and you'll have the certainty of knowing that it's completed.

With a Claim Issue Date of 8th January, you have until Monday 29th January to file an Acknowledgment of Service but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

To file an Acknowledgment of Service, follow the guidance in the Dropbox file linked from the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 12th February 2024 to file your Defence.

That's over 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 again at the second post on the NEWBIES thread - immediately following where you found the Acknowledgment of Service guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an Acknowledgment of Service, nor that 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'.

newuser8

Thanks @KeithP, I have now filed my acknowledgement of service and received a confirmation. Its great to know I have until the Monday 12th February to file my defence as I had assumed I had to get it done much sooner. Nonetheless, I'll start drafting it now and I'll post it here once complete so I can get some help with reviewing and finalising it. I really appreciate your help and swift response.

Le_Kirk

Yes, just post here the paragraphs from the Template Defence thread that you add or modify (usually 2 & 3) we do NOT need to see the whole template, although, of course, you submit it all when sending it be e-mail.  Can you show us the Particulars of Claim from the N1 claim form (redacted of personal information including claim ref and password).

Coupon-mad

Yes use the template.  But:

What you describe is a 'double dip' ANPR flaw and no PCN should have been generated and they should never have got your data.

Use the phrase 'double dip' and quote from the DLUHC's (temporarily withdrawn but known to be coming in) Code of Practice where they use that very phrase (wonder why...?!!).  

Seeing as you will be going to a hearing anyway, fancy doing a counterclaim (costs a £35 fee for a CC up to £300) for abuse of your keeper data because ParkingEye didn't check for two visits?  The idea has legs.  You just add a Counterclaim directly under your defence and pay the CNBC the £35 fee.

Please show the Particulars of Claim and amounts (basically show us the bottom half of the claim form but cover your VRM on the left and the MCOL password on the right).

newuser8

@Le_Kirk and @Coupon-mad here is my particulars of claim attached. (Removed by Forum Team)

newuser8

@Coupon-mad, I’ll add a counter claim as you’ve suggested and include the DLUHC quote in respect to the ANPR partially capturing parts of my entry in and out of barnet hospital. I’ll post my defence once I’ve written it out for your comments and review. Thanks so much. Really appreciate this.

newuser8

The other thing I want advice on is that my original defence to popla did not mention 2 visits because I was on the notion that I paid the correct amount for parking and PE were trying to extort more money from me. It was later when I looked at their evidence closely that I realised their ANPR only captured my first and last entry and omitted the time of my first exit and second entry which was why they were pursuing payment of my PCN. I only made this defence at comment stage and popla said they could not consider it. My concern now is PE could say I didn’t mention this to popla and ask the judge not to consider it. What are your taught? And can I still use this defence as it explains why I got a PCN. 

Coupon-mad

The above explanation seems very reasonable and should go in the defence.

Their error (a known flaw of ANPR that they are required to do human checks for, before buying DVLA data for £2.50) was never your burden to notice and prove.

It was and is their burden to prove that you parked for a single period of parking and breached a term. You didn't.  And if they'd carried out the due diligence of human checks of the ANPR data, they would not have been relying on automated decision-making, would have spotted the 'orphan images' (their phrase) and would never had cause to issue a PCN at all. 

They lacked the 'reasonable cause' to obtain your data and breached the DPA 2018 and UK GDPR 2018 as well as the DVLA KADOE rules and the BPA's operational guidance:

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/anpr

Look, this person should have counterclaimed:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6501615/we-took-on-excel-parking-won#latest