Court Claim from National Parking Control - Delivery Driver - Need Advice

mrmark_driver

Hi everyone,

I would be very grateful for your advice on how to handle a court claim I've received from National Parking Control. I've tried to lay out the situation as clearly as possible below.

The Situation

• Who: I'm a Stuart delivery driver.
• Where: Myrtle Parade, Liverpool (Tesco Express car park).
• When: 07/12/2024, for a duration of 12 minutes and 57 seconds.
• What happened: I received a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) from National Parking Control for "Failure to pay for the duration of stay".
• The Claim: The case has now escalated to a County Court Claim for a total of £261.24.

My Defence

My main defence is that I was carrying out a legitimate delivery for Tesco Express.

• I was on site for under 13 minutes, which is a reasonable time to collect two orders.
• I have evidence from my Stuart delivery app (order numbers and timestamps) that proves I was working.
• The photographic evidence they provided of my vehicle is of poor quality.

What I've Done So Far

• Appealed to NPC: I appealed to National Parking Control with my evidence, but my appeal was rejected.
• Contacted DCBL: The debt was passed to DCBL, who I also contacted to dispute the charge, but they insisted I was liable.
• Spoke to Tesco: I spoke to the staff at Tesco Express, but they informed me that the car park is managed by an independent company and they are unable to cancel the charge.
• Contacted my Employer: I have asked Stuart (my employer) for support, but I am still waiting for their response.

My Questions for the Community

I intend to defend this claim, and I would appreciate your advice on the following points:

1. Based on your experience, how strong is my defence as a delivery driver with evidence of my work?
2. What are the key arguments I should focus on in my written defence to the court?
3. I understand that if I lose, the costs will increase. The current claim is for £261.24. What is a realistic final figure I might have to pay if I defend the claim in court and lose?
4. Are there any specific legal arguments or case law that would be useful for my situation?

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any guidance you can offer would be a great help.

Coupon-mad

1. You'll win. Unloading isn't parking.

2. Use the Template Defence. See the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

3. You understand wrong. You'd pay LESS! See the second post of the NEWBIES thread.

4. Jopson v Homeguard.

doubledotcom

You also have added advantage that NPC use the utter incompetents at Moorside Legal to file their claims. You can guarantee that if they are using Moorside Legal as their legal representatives, the Particulars of Claim (PoC) in the N1SDT Claim Form fail to state an actual cause of action, therefore in breach of CPR 16.4(1)(a) which means you can use the persuasive appellate cases of Civil Enforcement Ltd v Ming Tan Chan (2023) [E7GM9W44] and Car Park Management Services Ltd v Charles Akande (2024) [K0DP5J30] as part of your defence and ask for the claim to be struck out.

Le_Kirk

With the above in mind, can we see the POC from the claim form, suitably redacted of personal information of course.

Thorndorise

doubledotcom said:

You also have added advantage that NPC use the utter incompetents at Moorside Legal to file their claims. You can guarantee that if they are using Moorside Legal as their legal representatives, the Particulars of Claim (PoC) in the N1SDT Claim Form fail to state an actual cause of action, therefore in breach of CPR 16.4(1)(a) which means you can use the persuasive appellate cases of Civil Enforcement Ltd v Ming Tan Chan (2023) [E7GM9W44] and Car Park Management Services Ltd v Charles Akande (2024) [K0DP5J30] as part of your defence and ask for the claim to be struck out.

I'm curious about this, have they now shifted away from using DCBL/DCB Legal - who have been their go to for some time?

If changed to Moorside, do you know when this happened? (is it all cases from that date or select ones)?

Cheers

Thorndorise

Also, as an aside, I can see that NPC have passed your details to DCBL, whilst DCBL is listed in their privacy policy - it does nor explain what those initials mean (Dirty Creatures Belligerently Litigate for example).

Nor do they explain what the Dirty Creatures do, and why your details are passed to them. This is in breach of GDPR and the DPA - and most importantly the advice of the ICO. In effect they have passed your details on unlawfully, and whilst they may have a 'legitimate interest' in doing so, they have to fulfil certain criteria within their privacy policy to allow them to do so, which they clearly haven't.

This in turn is a breach of industry good standards (bit of a misnomer in this industry granted), and those of the joint code also.

doubledotcom

I am dealing with a claim on behalf of NPC issued by Moorside Legal over on FTLA. I have never seen a claim issued by Moorside that complies with CPR 16.4(1)(a), ever!

Coupon-mad

@mrmark_driver

What happened please? So many Myrtle Parade NPC threads here in the past year!