COURT DEFENCE - Shop / Store not open at its usual time / day

Droidy

Hi all,

I think the claim maybe based on the shop being closed at the times of entering/exiting car park and the vehicle being there for approximately 25 minutes - the store would normally have been open and was only suddenly closed due to covid.

Soon after receiving the initial PCN, around 5 years ago, I tried to get the charge cancelled by speaking to the store manageress who said she could not help me with it and she even claimed she herself had to pay one - unbelievable. Then, my emails to the head office were ignored - I didn't get any replies at all.

So, based on online advice, I ignored all the correspondence from the claimant.

The dozens of threatening and demanding letters ceased after around a year had passed, and when I received nothing for the next three years, I thought they had given up on their scam charge.

Then, in the final quarter of last year, 2024, the letters started coming again and I continued ignoring them until now.

I will be doing the AoS this week.

I'm just wondering if I've said too much, or not enough, in my additions to the Defence to the Court template:

Claimant: G24 LIMITED

Claim Issue Date: 24/04/2025

POC:

1. 
2. Date of contravention is 2/04/2020
3. .... Reason: Unauthorised Parking at: {The store’s car park}
4.
AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS
1. £170 being the total of the PC(s)
2. Interest .....
...... a daily rate of £.01 until .....
3. Costs and court fees

The facts known to the Defendant:

2. The facts in this defence come from the Defendant's own knowledge and honest belief.  Conversely, the Claimant sets out a cut-and-paste incoherent and sparse statement of case. The POC appear to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action". The Defendant is unable, on the basis of the POC, to understand with certainty what case, allegation(s) and what heads of cost are being pursued, making it difficult to respond. However, the vehicle is recognised and it is admitted that the Defendant was the registered keeper and driver.

3. Referring to the Particulars of Claim (POC): paragraph 1 is denied. The Defendant is not indebted to the Claimant. Paragraph 2 is denied. No Penalty Charge (PCN) was "issued on 2/04/2020" (the date of the alleged visit).  Whilst the Defendant is the registered keeper, paragraphs 3 and 4 are denied. The Defendant is not liable and has seen no evidence of a breach of prominent terms.  The quantum is hugely exaggerated (no PCN can be £170 on private land) and there were no damages incurred whatsoever. The Claimant is put to strict proof of all of their allegations.

(i)  The store would normally have been open for business at the time of the alleged contravention and the defendant had no way of knowing in advance that the store would not be open at that time on that day.

(ii)  The defendant did not park on the car park after pulling-up and discovering the shop closed, but merely sat in the vehicle while taking a 20-minute phone call before exiting.

(iii)  The only term clear from the signage on the wall was that parking was limited to a maximum of two hours which was not contravened.

4. The Claimant will concede that no financial loss has arisen and that in order to impose an inflated parking charge, as well as proving a term was breached, there must be:

cont.... to para 30. and Statement of Truth

KeithP

Droidy said:

Claim Issue Date: 24/04/2025
I will be doing the AoS this week.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 24th April, you have until Tuesday 13th May 2025 to file an Acknowledgment of Service('AOS'), but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

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

Having filed an AOS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 27th May 2025 to file a 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 AOS guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an AOS, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an AOS has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

kryten3000

Did you previously admit to being the driver to G24?  If not, you should consider defending this as the Keeper without admitting to having stayed to take a phone call.

Do the particulars say "issued on" or "date of contravention"?  DCB Legal recently changed their wording.

Not that it matters too much since DCB Legal will almost certainly discontinue, but you don't want to "give away" anything that isn't mentioned in the Particulars of Claim.

Coupon-mad

I've no idea why you changed the Template to 'penalty charge' because this is nothing to do with council PCNs! But you must remove the sentence anyway:

"No Penalty Charge (PCN) was "issued on 2/04/2020" (the date of the alleged visit)."

No; that's now out of date. Drop that bit.

You could add to the end of your para 3 section:

The Defendant denies any breach of contract or liability for the charge and indeed, given the claim is founded on the absurd reason 'Unauthorised parking At' (which is incoherent and not even a full sentence) it is apparent that there was no consideration. Nothing of value was offered to patrons whom this Claimant decided were 'unauthorised.'

Droidy

@KeithP    Thanks for confirming the important dates to respond by.

@kryten3000  I have not previously admitted to anything or even communicated with G24 or DCBL, and yes, it has crossed my mind to not mention who the driver was. 

The particulars say both 'Issue date' (top right under claim No.) and 'date of contravention' under PoC midway down on left.

@Coupon-mad  I only added the words 'Penalty Charge' to the template, which was my dyslexic mistake, as I meant to add, 'Parking Charge (PCN)' for additional clarity. The template just seemed to refer to the abbreviation PCN several times throughout.

The claim form from the court refers to it as Parking Charge (PC), although DCBL's letters also refer to a Parking Charge Notice No. 

I think it no accidental coincidence that these shysters want their victims to think of their charges as the equivalent of councils' Penalty Charge Notices.

Thank you for the additional paragraph for my defence statement.

Umkomaas

As DCB Legal are involved, you might find the following thread of interest. Read the first few posts, then dip in randomly to the some of the other 544 (at time of writing) discontinuances.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

Coupon-mad

@Coupon-mad  I only added the words 'Penalty Charge' to the template, which was my dyslexic mistake, as I meant to add, 'Parking Charge (PCN)' for additional clarity. The template just seemed to refer to the abbreviation PCN several times throughout.

Doesn't matter because - as advised already - you must remove that line. Your POC are not quite the same as shahib_02's.

Coupon-mad

KeithP said:

Droidy said:

Claim Issue Date: 24/04/2025
I will be doing the AoS this week.

Hello and welcome.

With a Claim Issue Date of 24th April, you have until Tuesday 13th May 2025 to file an Acknowledgment of Service('AOS'), but there is nothing to be gained by delaying it. 

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

Having filed an AOS in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Tuesday 27th May 2025 to file a 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 AOS guidance.

Don't miss the deadline for filing an AOS, nor that for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an AOS has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Good to see you back, Keith!

Le_Kirk

Coupon-mad said:

Good to see you back, Keith!

Seconded!