Gladstones Letter Before Claim: Should I pay?

wccb123

Ah I see, yes I was being taken to page 2, and got confused. Sorry, new here!

Coupon-mad

I hate the fact it has two pages. Needs cleaning up again.

Car1980

Worth doing a SAR to get a copy of the original PCN?

wccb123

Thanks for everyones time on this. I'm finding it fairly overwhelming and I'm leaning towards just paying the charge and being done with it. If I felt I had a good defence, then I would take the time and follow all your advice. But I was at fault, and I ignored the initial charge naively hoping it would go away. From what I can tell from the advice and examples given it seems I'm relying on Gladstones messing up to win this if/when it goes to court, If they don't mess up then I'm risking paying even more.

I'm not sure where the first Horizon letter went, and even if it wasn't issued in good time I missed the appeal stage, so I don't think it matters any more. I'll just have to take this one on the chin, and be more mindful in future.

Coupon-mad

"I'm leaning towards just paying the charge and being done with it."

No, that's silly and unjustified. You aren't going to do that, because

• people who pay are funding and sponsoring the next scam PCN;
• most Gladstones LBCs do NOT lead to a claim form. Several of my relatives have replied to Gs and heard no more;
• £125 is a small sum that I don't expect they'll litigate over. I'd expect them not to sue;
• When Gladstones do sue over Horizon cases they add an impossible £10 and they do not plead cases properly, so they are easy to defend. Copy & paste, no 'reason' needed;
• When Gladstones get close to hearings they are dropping the ball this year and not proceeding;
• Even if you went all the way to a hearing over a £70 PCN, and lost, there's no CCJ risk and you'd just pay a total of £182 (£70 plus £50 plus £35 plus £27). That's merely a risk of paying £50-odd more!

Why would anyone pay £125 to avoid a vanishingly unlikely scenario of paying £182 if a case went to a hearing and you lost?

Anyhoo, Lewes Tesco or Dundee can cancel it this week for you if you show your receipts and complain.

Or try Tesco online chat or social media to reach them and get angry. They can and do cancel Horizon PCNs all the time.

wccb123

Thanks for the pep talk Coupon-Mad, I'll try and do as you say.

I have contacted Tesco customer support via telephone to complain. They initially told me as it's gone to the debt collectors stage, there is nothing they can do. When I challenged that she took the details and emailed them to their 'specialist' team. They then came back to her and said the same thing, that there's nothing they can do now it's at the stage its at. Again, I challenged that as Horizon are their client, and therefore they have the power to cancel this charge if they wished to do so, so she is going back to them with that but I don't expect any change.

Btw, I have found a second stack of letters from different companies on this same matter. Not sure it matters, but thought I'd mention it. 1 from Debt Recovery Plus, in October 2025 asking for £125, and 3 from Empira (one, asking for £150, one asking for £70, and the 3rd correcting that and asking for £150 again) dated around May-June 2026. All of which I ignored (ignorance seems to be my strong suit :) )

So next step is to email Gladstones. Is this the right template (below)?

Dear Sirs,

Your ref: [ref]

Proposed legal proceedings

Claimant: Horizon Parking Limited

I refer to your letter of claim.

I confirm that my address for service for the time being is as follows, and any older address must be erased from your records:

[address]

You should revert to your client because the 'propensity to pay' score in my case is zero, so any claim is hopeless and a waste of the court fee (whether 'fronted' by your firm or not). Move on to weaker victims.

The alleged 'debt' is disputed and any court proceedings will be vigorously defended.

Yours faithfully,

wccb123

and is this the correct email to use for them?

enquiries@gladstonessolicitors.co.uk

wccb123

also, is there anything else I should add, such as submitting a SAR? (as suggested by Car1980)

Le_Kirk

That is the email address I have in my list.

Coupon-mad

No SAR.

Don't overthink this 'nothing' stage.