Parking Control Management UK Ltd (PCM) / Moorside Legal Discontinued April 2025

frankyfrank

Hi All,

First post. I've gone through newbies post and didnt see anything about location errors in PCNs so starting this thread.

I received a PCN for parking at a Texaco garage in April 2022 where after purchasing fuel I moved my vehicle to a parking area and popped to another shop. I was off the garage premises for around 2 mins as evidenced by timestamps in the parking companies photos. So I receive the PCN and the offence location is incorrectly stated as that of another Texcao garage a mile away with a similar postcode. Having made enquiries on social media I've also found out that they've been making this error with most if not all PCN's issued from this garage.

I'm actually at the court stage now as I did not appeal and have decided to defend claim primarily on the location error as I do not feel it can be classed as a simple typo and shows a total lack of due diligence. I know on I'm on a stickier wicket with a secondary defence based on an assumed grace period and the fact that I was only off site for two minutes.

Moorside Legal are taking me to court but have not addressed the error in any way.

Trying to keep this short so will leave it at that but will provide any further info if requested.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Gr1pr

Have you filed a defence   ?  Or has the CNBC letter only just arrived   ?  What is the issue date on it  ?

You defend on inadequate POC details,  see the other Moorside Legal cases on here since Xmas 

Coupon-mad

If you already put in your defence please show it here, verbatim. Plus the POC please.

frankyfrank

Here's the POC. Sorry it's a photo as I havent got an electronic copy...

[Image removed by Forum Team]

frankyfrank

And my admittedly rushed defence statement...

DEFENCE STATEMENT

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all. It is
denied that a there was a breach of Term on the Claimants signs. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the boilerplate text in the Particulars of Claim ('the POC'). However, the vehicle is recognised and it is admitted that the Defendant is the address of the registered keeper [removed by Forum Team].

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. The claim is entirely based on an embarrassingly erroneous Parking Charge Notice which refers to two separate service stations. The Claimant states that the vehicle was parked at ‘Texaco Crossroads – CF35’ but provides photographic evidence taken at Pencoed Service Station, 11 Coychurch Road, Pencoed CF35 5NH. Although not fully stated by the Claimant in the poorly written POC, the Texaco Crossroads Service Station has the postcode CF35 5HY showing they are different locations, around a mile apart.

3. The vehicle was parked at Pencoed Service Station, Coychurch Road on the date and time of the claimed breach and not at Texaco Crossroads Service Station as stated in the POC. This is clearly shown in the Claimants own photographic evidence.

4. The Defendant retains a cash register receipt from Pencoed Service Station, Coychurch Road issued on 15th April 2022 at 11:43:14 to the sum of £40.07 in respect of Diesel purchased.

Coupon-mad

frankyfrank said:

And my admittedly rushed defence statement...

DEFENCE STATEMENT

1. The Defendant denies that the Claimant is entitled to relief in the sum claimed, or at all. It is
denied that a there was a breach of Term on the Claimants signs. Liability is denied, whether or not the Claimant is claiming 'keeper liability', which is unclear from the boilerplate text in the Particulars of Claim ('the POC'). However, the vehicle is recognised and it is admitted that the Defendant is the address of the registered keeper, Mr xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx.

The facts as known to the Defendant:

2. The claim is entirely based on an embarrassingly erroneous Parking Charge Notice which refers to two separate service stations. The Claimant states that the vehicle was parked at ‘Texaco Crossroads – CF35’ but provides photographic evidence taken at Pencoed Service Station, 11 Coychurch Road, Pencoed CF35 5NH. Although not fully stated by the Claimant in the poorly written POC, the Texaco Crossroads Service Station has the postcode CF35 5HY showing they are different locations, around a mile apart.

3. The vehicle was parked at Pencoed Service Station, Coychurch Road on the date and time of the claimed breach and not at Texaco Crossroads Service Station as stated in the POC. This is clearly shown in the Claimants own photographic evidence.

4. The Defendant retains a cash register receipt from Pencoed Service Station, Coychurch Road issued on 15th April 2022 at 11:43:14 to the sum of £40.07 in respect of Diesel purchased.

OK that looks good (ish). 

The bad news is that if your local court is Cardiff, they don't let you have hearings.

They make decisions 'on the papers' so make sure your WS attaches all necessary evidence to support that short defence.

You can always add a challenge about unclear signs/terms because s71 of the CRA 2015 applies in all consumer contract cases.

frankyfrank

Just received this from the court which I am reading as a victory or is caution warranted? If it is a victory thank you very much for the feedback given directly to my post and the threads maintained by the volunteers. Much appreciated! I had my witness statement all ready too and was almost  starting to look forward to judgment day!

On a sidenote, having been stung more than once by these cowboys, I'd love to set up a non profit web site where all the relevant successfully defended judgements to these parking claims could be stored and referenced. It also wouldn't be that difficult to play them at their own game where a lot of the cut and paste POCs used by these big firms could be checked against historically successful defences providing a skeleton defence as a starting point. Just a thought and thanks again!

Coupon-mad

Just means that hearing date has been vacated. Nothing more. Maybe the C cannot attend that date. Did they copy you into their email asking to change the date (we assume)?

If not, phone the local court on Tuesday and ask for a copy of what was asked for by the C (because you weren't copied in) and ask what's happening next?

I'm worried the C might have said 'please make a decision on the papers without a hearing' which I hope ISN'T what you agreed to in your N180 about suitability for determination?

ChirpyChicken

I would immediately email the court (dont bother with the phones as part of the central service) and ask for the correspondence relating to this 

ChirpyChicken

email enquiries.pontypridd.countycourt@justice.gov.uk

frankyfrank

Coupon-mad said:

Just means that hearing date has been vacated. Nothing more. Maybe the C cannot attend that date. Did they copy you into their email asking to change the date (we assume)?

If not, phone the local court on Tuesday and ask for a copy of what was asked for by the C (because you weren't copied in) and ask what's happening next?

I'm worried the C might have said 'please make a decision on the papers without a hearing' which I hope ISN'T what you agreed to in your N180 about suitability for determination?

The court letter is all I received. I've emailed the court asking for a copy of the claimants request. In my N180 following adive here I asked for an in person hearing not on the papers and this was all set for 10th June. Havent filed my WS yet as I was hoping to see their evidence first but as deadline is 22nd April it's getting kind of close. Will uppdate here when I get a response from court.