DCBLegal VCS Court Hearing - Bristol Airport Hilton

Le_Kirk

Statement of Truth?

mamapapa12

@Le_Kirk good catch thanks!!! 😅😱🤦‍♂️

1505grandad

"5. COSTS

5.1 I respectfully request modest costs for time spent preparing and pursuing this application:

• 6 hours dealing with DCB Legal correspondence and N244 preparation @ £15/hr = £90

• 20 hours studying case law and preparing this Witness Statement £15/hr = £300

• £150 Emotional distress of getting a CCJ on my credit file and unable to get loans or credit.

Total: £530"

If you are going to include the above , check your maths

Coupon-mad

1505grandad said:

"5. COSTS

5.1 I respectfully request modest costs for time spent preparing and pursuing this application:

• 6 hours dealing with DCB Legal correspondence and N244 preparation @ £15/hr = £90

• 20 hours studying case law and preparing this Witness Statement £15/hr = £300

• £150 Emotional distress of getting a CCJ on my credit file and unable to get loans or credit.

Total: £530"

If you are going to include the above , check your maths

Also, what about the £313 court fee you paid?

Where you (twice) talk about Carr you say it was in March 2025 but it wasn't. That was just the preliminary hearing. It was in May and this is the correct citation:

Phillip Carr v Vehicle Control Services Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 713

Also change all your paragraph numbering to normal sequential numbers.

Finally you've missed all the usual case law about the claim being expired unserved because 4 months has passed. Search the forum & copy one from 2025. There is a lot of case law to support this, including VCS v Carr which upheld that argument and held that the first judge had been right about the 4 months expiry.

The claim is dead.

mamapapa12

Thanks @Coupon-mad and @1505grandad

Had the hearing today... VCS DID send a lawyer! All the way from London to Yeovil and back! must have cost a fortune.

Even the lawyer was unhappy about their waste of money on it. He said they lose every such case so he didn't understand the point! He said judges can't stand "no stopping" cases.

Both the judge and lawyer were impressed with the Witness Statement so thank everyone for the help.

 I had the point about the 4 months in 4.3 but i don't think it would have made a difference with a fuller description of the case law:

The judge agreed that I had moved address but that they did try to reach me at my last known address. He didn't want to get into the details of whether it was served properly or not so he went for 13.3 - he chose to set it aside because of my prompt responses with the N244 form.

The vcs lawyer threw me off - my first time in court too - looking back i would have stated my point 4.3 explicitly because the judge barely read the witness statements but I don't think it would have made a difference. 

Anyway now the judge asked for a draft order and Witness Statements for my defence of the claim and asked the same of VCS and whether we want to go through small claims or what.

I asked if I could settle with vcs outside of court to just leave it be but I guess I need to put the witness statement in anyway... and it's up to dcblegal... not sure what they'd choose.

Such a waste of time and money - what are they trying to prove? £60 pcn and now they've probably spent over £1500 I guessing.

Coupon-mad

Did you not get awarded your £313?

Do a draft order citing VCS v Carr AND THE NEW CASE LAW - MAZUR V SPEECHLYS - and include a point that your costs must be paid by the Claimant for the wholly unreasonable conduct of filling - and failing to properly plead and serve - a claim that was signed by an unauthorised person (in breach of the LSA 2007) and if they wish to proceed they must re-serve a fresh claim, this time signed by a solicitor not by Sarah Ensall who will be reported to the SRA now.

And do a WS too

And report SE to the SRA once you understand Mazur.

Read the MAZUR v SPEECHLYS thread. What a shame you didn't read it last month. Reading the posts here at least weekly can be of huge benefit, as new case law happens.

Stop offering money!

EDIT:

I told you about Mazur and other case law - including VCSv Edward and Excel v Smith - on 6th October.

Did you not use it? Use it NOW!

Coupon-mad said:

If you have only so far put in a N244 application alone, then to get this over the line AND YOUR COSTS BACK, you DO need a Witness Statement ('WS') and evidence that your address was old, and you need to append case law:

VCS v Carr
VCS v Edward
Excel v Smith
and the new Mazur case (see the new thread).

...

try searching for these exact words

"Carr DVLA starting point"

This hearing isn't about the PCN but you should be able to get the whole claim struck out on the spot, AND your costs.

But assume your judge doesn't know that and hasn't heard of VCS v Carr and doesn't realise that keepers who were not driving can't be held liable on Airport land.

Your job is to use the case law to explain why!

It's mainly about understanding VCS v Carr which is binding case law from the Court of Appeal this May, about a CCJ parking case just like yours.

You aren't liable. Why are you offering money and why didn't you use Edward and Smith? 

mamapapa12

Ok thanks @Coupon-mad 'll check the Mazur vs Speechlys 

was looking after whole family that were sick 3 weeks so was low on time 

I didn't have to pay £313 as I was on u.c when I applied the n244

Coupon-mad

Oh I am glad you aren't out of pocket!

Even better.

Show us the judge's Order (I say 'us' but I'm on holiday for 3 weeks now so others will reply).

mamapapa12

I don't have a copy of the original claim form... dcblegal never sent it to me - only the Charge notices and final reminder and then the letter from the bailiffs 

guess I need to ask for it ASAP 

have 14 days for the next WS

bobbyboushay

Hi guys, I’m sure this information is covered in the forum having a bit of trouble finding where to start so hoping someone can point me in the right direction. 

My partner received a charge notice from VCS for stopping in a no stopping zone. Pulled over into a lay-by just after the barrier exit from the car park to change her sat nav as it froze as she was leaving. She actually thought she had paid the original fine as she didn’t want to challenge it, turns out the payment didn’t go through for some reason. She has received the final reminder and a debt recovery letter for £170 from dcbl. I’m going to challenge for her, could anyone advise the action I’d need to take or the thread where I can find this information please. 

Thanks in advance.