PCN Letter before Claim Gladstones Solicitors

drorlock

Hello everyone. 

Using no real names as per forum rules - just call me Mr Stress Head. Received a Letter Before Claim letter from Gladstones Solicitors. They are acting for the Coop, Mablethorpe. This is the first time I have received any correspondence concerning parking.  You can stay at the Coop car park for a max of 2 hours however I usually make more than 1 trip there on any given day and certainly never stay beyond the allotted 2 hours. I’m pretty certain that the technology (provided by Horizon on behalf of the Coop) has recorded the entry time for the earlier visit and matched it against the exit time for the later visit. This has happened many times with other users. The letter from Gladstones just gives me a date 24 October 2024. There are no further details given such as entrance exit times or images. The letter does mention that I can dispute the debt by through an online Reply form but I can’t find it on their website.

Additionally, they said they had an issue finding the correct mail address and this has results in an additional charge of £80. So the total charge is £70 PCN plus £80 Gladstone charge  = £150.

I have seen reference to a template which can be used?  Any advice on how to proceed would be gratefully acknowledged (with a huge sigh of relief). Finally I apologies if I have missed any relevant info on the forum – I’m in a bit of a panic.

Yours faithfully

Mr Stress Head.

Car1980

Show us the exact letter please. Presumably their client is Horizon, not the Co-op?

They can't add £80 for not finding an address when a trace costs them 28p. 

drorlock

Thanks for responding so soon. Here is the letter. 

[Image redacted for personal information by Forum Team]

drorlock

Sorry yes - the client is most likely Horizon but their letter does not show that. 

Car1980

Right, it's just a normal pre-court letter.

£100 parking charge.
£50 fake "recovery fee"
plus the usual 
£35 it costs them to make a claim
£50 solicitor court costs if they win

I recommend you email them and deny their client's accusations. State it's a double dip ANPR case and that their client has already provided the images that show the car over two visits in two different parking spaces (send it to them if you want). Say any court claim will be defended and point out that this is a really stupid case to risk on a claim.

Gladstones have no knowledge of any of these cases, but alerting them to a double dip should wake them up to the fact it would be a futile case.

drorlock

Hi there. Thanks for the reply but I don't have any proof (i.e. images) of the car in 2 seperate car parking spaces. I dont even have entrance and exit time just the date given in the letter. Apologies if my initial post gave that impression. Would it be advisable for me to try and contact Horizon?

Le_Kirk

Don't contact Horizon, they will only be rude to you and try to get you to pay.  Follow the advice given by @Car1980

Car1980

It's up to them to make their claim, so don't worry.

Forget the letters, you just need to let Gladstones know it's a double dip case to dissuade them from making a claim.

But no problem if they do. 

drorlock

It's good advice given @Car1980 (and yourself). The only thing is that I dont have any copies of the images they would have taken of my car. I'll assume Horizon does so feel it's best to talk to them first, if I get nothing from them then I'll try Gladstones. IT's silly of them to give me a PCN with out any details of the length of overstay

Le_Kirk

Sometimes if you go on the PPC's site as if to pay (obviously DON'T pay) the pictures will be there.

drorlock

Bloody hell. Logged into Horizon page and was able to pull up the evidence. It seems like I did legitimately overstay by 30 mins. God knows what I was doing! Anyway I want to thank you guys for responding so quickly and helping me out. It means a lot and I can now pass this info on to some of the local. Once again thanks.