Received PCN from First Parking – POPLA Rejected – Now DCBL Letter for £150

Coupon-mad

Yep threaten DCB Legal with costs and tell them you know they are in breach of the hearing order by failing to pay the Hearing fee. Give them seven days to send you the Notice of Discontinuance.

Then show us the NoD for Umkomaas' thread!

longcathead

Hi guys

They're a bit slow it seems and haven't yet sent the discontinuation. My deadline for witness statement is today so I think I'll just send to the be safe. Could someone quickly skim through it and let me know if there is anything wrong. Cheers.

I've taken the template provided that says in the county court along with the names and numbers etc etc.

WITNESS STATEMENT OF (JOHN SMITH)

1.1 I, (John Smith), of 123 Sample Street am the Defendant in this matter. The facts below are true to the best of my belief and this account has been prepared based upon my own knowledge.

1.2 I am a litigant in person with no formal legal training. I have done my best to present my evidence clearly, and I respectfully ask the court to take this into account.

1.3 I note for the Court that, at the time of writing, I have yet to receive the Claimant’s Witness Statement.

2. Background and events on the day

2.1 On (DATE), I parked at my university car park managed by First Parking LLP.

2.3 I had parked at this location on many previous occasions for my lectures and would usually pay without issue.

2.4 On this occasion, after parking, I proceeded as normal and attempted to pay using the JustPark application.

2.5 When the application failed to process payment, I attempted multiple times but received error messages each time. In Exhibit A you can see that the application did not provide any clear prompt or instruction directing me to viable alternative payment methods.

2.6 Previously, in the event of app issues, I would have used the on-site payment machine to pay by cash. However, this machine had been removed a few days prior to the incident please see Exhibit B.

2.7 As a result, I was left without a clear or accessible means of making payment.

2.8 At the time, I was attending a scheduled university lecture and had already made multiple attempts to pay. Given the failure of the advertised payment method and the removal of the on-site machine, I had no clear or immediate way to complete payment. In those circumstances, I reasonably believed I had done all that was possible to comply.

3. Reasonable conduct

3.1 I made genuine and repeated attempts to comply with the terms by paying for parking.

3.2 A reasonable person in the same situation would have relied on the advertised payment method and expected it to function correctly.

3.3 The failure of the Claimant’s payment system prevented performance of any alleged contract.

3.4 In light of the above, I submit that no breach of any parking terms occurred. I made genuine attempts to pay using the advertised method but was prevented from doing so due to failures within the Claimant’s system and the absence of a clear alternative.

4. Inadequacy of Alternative Payment Methods as Advertised on Signage (Exhibit C)

4.1 Looking at Exhibit C, a photograph of the parking sign displayed at the car park at the time.

4.2 The dominant and prominent feature of the sign occupying the most visually distinct section, and the large brand logo is the JustPark application, displayed with its Location ID.

4.3 The JustPark app is clearly the primary and advertised method of payment. By contrast, the alternative methods referenced on the sign, namely payment by SMS and a telephone number, are presented in small, densely printed text that is not reasonably legible to a person standing at the sign in ordinary circumstances.

4.4 No reasonable motorist reading this sign would identify those alternatives as prominent or accessible payment options.

4.5 The sign therefore reinforced my reasonable belief that JustPark was the intended and operative means of payment. When that method failed, I was not clearly directed to any viable alternative, and none was practically accessible to me at the time.

5. Unlawful Inflation and Abuse of Process

5.1 The Claimant seeks £150 per PCN. Schedule 4 paragraph 4(5) of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (POFA) limits keeper liability to the amount of the unpaid parking charge only.

5.2 The addition of arbitrary "debt fees" is an attempt at double recovery. I rely on ParkingEye v Somerfield Stores [2011] EWHC 4023(QB), where HHJ Hegarty held that inflating a PCN with admin costs "would appear to be penal".  

Statement of Truth

I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement 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.



In the same document I then have title Exhibits and then all images are titled Exhibit A, B, C.

Coupon-mad

Looks great!

I would change it all to normal sequential paragraph numbering though. Reads better.

To the section below I would add the two sections about HHJ Moloney's Cambridge hearing stage of the Parking Eye v Beavis case judgment, that you will find in the current Template Defence, as it is important that judges realise that Beavis actually DID deal with the costs of the pre-action letter chain:

5.2 The addition of arbitrary "debt fees" is an attempt at double recovery. I rely on ParkingEye v Somerfield Stores [2011] EWHC 4023(QB), where HHJ Hegarty held that inflating a PCN with admin costs "would appear to be penal". 

longcathead

Hey guys
I just received a letter in the post from the court saying the "claimant failed to pay so the claim stands struck out".

Does that means it all over now officially or should I still be expecting the NoD?

Le_Kirk

It's over you have won; it wasn't a discontinuance it was a court ordered strike-out.

Coupon-mad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81984502#Comment_81984502

Yes, you won!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

😀

longcathead

Amazing! Just wanted to say that I genuinely pray that every one of you never faces hardship or trouble in life and if you ever do that it’s resolved quickly and with ease. What all you guys do here for people freely and without expecting anything back means more than you probably realise.

Thank you very much and have a wonderful life! 🙏