Britannia Parking, DCB Legal court claim 2025, WS stage

Gr1pr

Anything that helps your case is useful,  especially if that is what you believe has happened 

But if they received payment in full, then your clear intention to pay, pay in full , and believe that no breach of the parking contract occurred,  should be in your favour 

But in the end I expect that it will be discontinued so it may all vanish into thin air, leaving you feeling down regarding the drawn out process 

They have to prove their case, you dont have to prove anything,  but proof of full payment is very useful to you,  especially because machines are not foolproof 

Coupon-mad

Chillitomato said:

Gr1pr said:

Exhibits are evidence,  plus your witness statement is an Exhibit too

The newbies sticky thread in announcements gives examples of excellent witness statements by other victims here, I suspect that you have not studied them , they are exemplars of how yours should be 

The better the research,  the better your case 


In simple terms,  think about it like this

You were accused of taking an IPAD or IPHONE  from the Apple shop in centra London on Boxing day 2024 

How do you plead   ?  NOT guilty your honour  !

What is your defence   ?  It wasn't me, I wasn't there  !

 What does your signed truthful Witness Statement say and with what Exhibits   ( evidence   ) to back up your not guilty,  not there plea  ?

I was on holiday for 14 days in Sharm el Sheik in Egypt from the 20th December 2024 until the 4th January 2025 at the Hotel Seti and attach copies of my bank statement,  travel documents,  passport stamps , itinerary , hotel safe key contract and pictures of myself taken whilst I was there, I also attach as Exhibit Z a copy of my travel document to see the Valley of the Kings and Luxor.  So it definitely wasn't me in the London Apple Outlet 

That witness statement expands on the defence,  not replicate it,  but is a rough and ready analogy which I fully accept  ( still half asleep here , others on here could definitely come up with something better  )

But you should get the gist

In your case 

Britannia Parking state,  no valid payment made !

Your defence is,  yes I did pay the correct payment  ?  No breach of the parking contract occurred  !

Your witness statement will elaborate on the circumstances,  as a first person witness who was present,  that you did make a payment,  in full , and your Exhibit ABC1 is submitted into evidence as an official Exhibit to prove that Britannia received full payment,  ergo no breach of the parking contract ocurred and the claim is false

Personally I expect that the case will be discontinued before the trial fee is required to be paid by the claimant,  so will never get to a court hearing 

That really helps, thank you. I have also been back to this car park since and the machine is extremely glitchy and hard to use, would it be worth me getting a video of this?

Also, lots of reviews on Google of people having the same issue I had, would it be appropriate to attach some of these reviews? 

Yes to all - oh dear - you will have to throw the kitchen sink at it to win this case now, if you agreed to a paper hearing where 99% of people lose.

You don't agree to that because that's handing the solicitor a chance to win with a better WS than yours and you won't get a voice, so your WS and evidence is going to have to nail it.

Sadly by ticking 'yes' you've gone off piste from forum advice. Aaaghh! I hope I'm wrong but almost everyone loses when agreeing to 'a battle of the paperwork' with a law firm that does it for a living,

It's also unlikely to be discontinued now.

Why would they?

Chillitomato

Coupon-mad said:

Chillitomato said:

Gr1pr said:

Exhibits are evidence,  plus your witness statement is an Exhibit too

The newbies sticky thread in announcements gives examples of excellent witness statements by other victims here, I suspect that you have not studied them , they are exemplars of how yours should be 

The better the research,  the better your case 


In simple terms,  think about it like this

You were accused of taking an IPAD or IPHONE  from the Apple shop in centra London on Boxing day 2024 

How do you plead   ?  NOT guilty your honour  !

What is your defence   ?  It wasn't me, I wasn't there  !

 What does your signed truthful Witness Statement say and with what Exhibits   ( evidence   ) to back up your not guilty,  not there plea  ?

I was on holiday for 14 days in Sharm el Sheik in Egypt from the 20th December 2024 until the 4th January 2025 at the Hotel Seti and attach copies of my bank statement,  travel documents,  passport stamps , itinerary , hotel safe key contract and pictures of myself taken whilst I was there, I also attach as Exhibit Z a copy of my travel document to see the Valley of the Kings and Luxor.  So it definitely wasn't me in the London Apple Outlet 

That witness statement expands on the defence,  not replicate it,  but is a rough and ready analogy which I fully accept  ( still half asleep here , others on here could definitely come up with something better  )

But you should get the gist

In your case 

Britannia Parking state,  no valid payment made !

Your defence is,  yes I did pay the correct payment  ?  No breach of the parking contract occurred  !

Your witness statement will elaborate on the circumstances,  as a first person witness who was present,  that you did make a payment,  in full , and your Exhibit ABC1 is submitted into evidence as an official Exhibit to prove that Britannia received full payment,  ergo no breach of the parking contract ocurred and the claim is false

Personally I expect that the case will be discontinued before the trial fee is required to be paid by the claimant,  so will never get to a court hearing 

That really helps, thank you. I have also been back to this car park since and the machine is extremely glitchy and hard to use, would it be worth me getting a video of this?

Also, lots of reviews on Google of people having the same issue I had, would it be appropriate to attach some of these reviews? 

Yes to all - oh dear - you will have to throw the kitchen sink at it to win this case now, if you agreed to a paper hearing where 99% of people lose.

You don't agree to that because that's handing the solicitor a chance to win with a better WS than yours and you won't get a voice, so your WS and evidence is going to have to nail it.

Sadly by ticking 'yes' you've gone off piste from forum advice. Aaaghh! I hope I'm wrong but almost everyone loses when agreeing to 'a battle of the paperwork' with a law firm that does it for a living,

It's also unlikely to be discontinued now.

Why would they?

Ah I see, I misunderstood what it was asking, I didn't realise it would be a paper hearing. I thought I was ticking yes to say that the judge could rule to throwing out the claim before it actually went to any kind of hearing. In hindsight I know that doesn't make sense but I've been really anxious about this and suppose I rushed to get everything filled out so I didn't have to think about it.

Do I just give up now and pay the fine to save any more stress? 

Coupon-mad

No I'd reply explaining you never agreed to not have a face to face hearing. Explain what you thought the box on the N180 meant and say you want a hearing date please. List any unavailable dates!

Chillitomato

The final paragraph of the letter states this

14) Because this Order has been made without a hearing, the parties have the right to apply to have the order set

aside, varied or stayed. A party making such an application must send or deliver the application to the court

(Together with any appropriate fee) to arrive within seven days of service of this 

Is this what i would need to do to have it changed to a face to face meeting? 

Coupon-mad

Hmmm yes and that costs £129.  No point doing that then. Just do a really good WS. No template dross. Just great evidence.

Chillitomato

Yep there goes that plan... I will go go get some photos and videos from the car park at some point over the weekend and put together a draft witness statement.

Can I appeal my personal circumstances in the WS or is it purely evidence? 

Also I anticipate that the claimant will argue that I am at fault for not changing the adress on my V5. Can I argue this by saying the claim is for not making a valid payment, not because I did not update my V5

Coupon-mad

Not updating your V5c is irrelevant to the case. They are just mudslinging.

You could respond to that by saying that they are in breach of the (nonsense) Joint Code, if they/the DRA discovered by a soft trace that you'd moved and yet they failed to comply with the Code of Practice clause saying they must pause debt recovery and reissue the PCN to appeal.

Can I appeal my personal circumstances 

Don't go there if you mean "can I talk about not being able to afford to pay". A WS isn't a set of excuses not to pay (that stance almost gives the scam legitimacy as a debt). Concentrate on showing that no contract was formed.

Chillitomato

I've put together a draft WS, any feedback would be appreciated 

 ……., declare as follows:

 

1. I am the registered keeper of the ……. registered under number ……..

 

2. The facts and matters set out in this statement are within my own knowledge unless I state otherwise. I believe them to be true. Where I refer to information supplied by others, the source is identified. Facts and matters derived from other sources are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

 

Summary of events

3. On 29 April 2024 I parked my car at ST Johns Road West, Harborne, I keyed in my registration correctly and paid £1.20 for the relevant period of parking. However, no ticket was produced by the machine. My payment was accepted with no error message, so it was reasonable for me to assume that the machine had run out of paper.

 

4. Considering the Claimant also accepts payments through a telephone app, it also seemed reasonable to assume that a paper copy was secondary to the vehicle registration number being registered as having been paid on the system, which I had done through the ticket machine.

 

5. In June 2024 I received I received a notice of debt recovery issued by the claimant’s legal company, for failure to make a valid payment at St Johns Road west, car park, Harborne. This was the first notice I received of any fine and I immediately called Britannia parking group, but they had an answer phone with nobody answering the line.

 

6.  On July1st I emailed Brittania parking group for clarification as to what exactly the fine was for and stated that I could provide proof of payment. They replied that they had no payment recorded for my registration or any registration that resembles it. They explained that they had issued a PCN to the address that my car was registered, and that it was my responsibility to ensure that this was correct and up to date and because I had missed the appeals window, I had no choice but to pay the fine.  

 

7. The claimant is in breach of the Joint code, if they were able to discover that I had changed address through a soft trace, they must comply with the Code of Practise clause that states that they must pause debt recovery and reissue the PCN to appeal.

 

8. I then replied that I could provide a copy of my bank statement, attached as (evidence1) to provide proof of payment and that because the machine has no record of my registration, or anything that resembles it, then it is clearly a machine error as I could not have paid without first entering my registration. I have attached the emails I sent as (evidence2). Unfortunately, I do not have the emails I received from Brittania parking group, as I lost my entire inbox, I did email Brittania parking on 16/11/24 to request a copy of our email conversation but this was ignored. I have attached this email as (evidence3). I kindly ask that the claimant submit a copy of this email conversation.

 

 

9. I categorically refute the accusation by Brittania parking group, that I did not pay for parking, and it is them who inconvenienced me massively by not providing me with a ticket. I believe the onus is on Britannia parking group to prove that I did not pay for their ‘service’. 

 

10. I assume the Claimant have CCTV footage of me arriving and leaving the carpark, or they would not have contacted me in the first instance. This footage should also show me spending a considerable amount of time at the payment machine, waiting for a ticket. I politely request that the Claimant submit a copy of their CCTV footage for my period of parking on 29th April 2024.

 

11. I also requested that the Claimant provide an account of their paper-roll usage over 90 days before and after the alleged date: if the payment machine was working properly, surely those would not show any variation apart from regular day/time usage. 

 

12. I have also attached various google reviews of ST Johns west car park, Harborne, as (evidence4). Which show that this has been an ongoing issue for many years and that Brittania parking group have failed to address this. They can be viewed directly here https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-h3g-gb-rvc2&source=android-browser&q=st+johns+west+car+park+reviews#lkt=LocalPoiReviews&trex=m_t:lcl_akp,rc_f:nav,rc_ludocids:10139103222169606145,rc_q:St%2520Johns%2520Road%2520West%2520car%2520park,ru_q:St%2520Johns%2520Road%2520West%2520car%2520park,trex_id:CwcTzb&lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D

 

13. I also politely request that Brittania parking group provide their machine’s maintenance and repairs records, which will confirm that their machine was not working on the day I parked.

 

14. I politely request that the claim brought against me by Brittania parking group be dismissed.

 

15. I deny that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all. It is denied that a contract was entered into – by conduct or otherwise – whereby it was ‘agreed’ to pay a ‘parking charge’ within 28 days. I strongly deny being indebted to Brittania parking group.

 

16. Summary of evidence requested from Claimant

i. Email chain between myself and claimant

ii. CCTV footage of the ticketing machine between hours of parking on 29th April 2024.

iii. Ticketing machine’s maintenance and repairs records, which will show that their machine was not working on the day I parked.

iv. An account of the Claimant’s paper-roll usage at that very same site over 90 days before and after the alleged date: if the payment machine was working properly, surely those would not show any variation apart from regular day/time usage.

 

17. Summary of evidence supplied by me.

i. Evidence1 – Bank statement.

ii. Evidence2 – Emails sent to claimant to clarify reason for fine and to offer proof of payment

iii. Evidence3 – Email to request copy of email chain from claimant.

iv. Evidence4 – Google reviews that show ongoing issues with ticketing machines at ST Johns west car park, Harborne.

 

Statement of truth

I believe that the facts stated in this defence are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

Gr1pr

Clearly the statement of truth is incorrect,  for starters 

Too many parking companies are listed, there can only be one 

I suggest that you proof read statements before we do, and please change the thread title to something more suitable like 

Britannia Parking,  DCB Legal court claim 2025, WS stage