Gladstones lose for SIP

Last year in July, we visited one of our daughters who lives in Manchester. Entered Cable Street car park near to her flat and paid £4. I placed the flimsy ticket on top of the dashboard and we went to spend an enjoyable evening with our first born.

On our return at 11pm, there's the dreaded PCN on the windscreen, the ticket I had put on the top of the dashboard was now sitting in the speedometer recess. The next day I sent off a letter to SIP explaining the facts and attached a COPY of the ticket, never let the original out of your possession.

We then went through the usual trail of letters, threats, the letters from Gladstones and eventually earlier this year, the summons from Northampton County Court D7GF418J. I nominated my local County Court and today the case was listed at Wrexham County Court and I won!! The claim was dismissed by the Deputy Judge and I'll list some tips and observations which I hope will help someone/anyone fighting in similar circumstances.

All communication from the County Court is scary, but that doesn't mean you can't tackle it. I learnt to read stuff when it first arrives, then put it down and leave it a day. Let your heart stop pounding, come back to it the next day and re-read it. You'll be amazed at how 24 hours gives you the time to suddenly see things you missed the first time. I'd say NEVER respond on the same day, there's no rush, take your time and think about what you want to say. Write it out on a separate plain piece of paper and if need be, put it down again and give it another 24 hours. Trust me, the next day you'll see things you should have written or sentences that make you glad you waited.

I based my defence on several facts. I had bought a ticket in good faith and the ticket said 'Display on Dashboard' where it still was, albeit not on top of the dashboard. Furthermore I discovered the findings of a case last November in Port Talbot CC, where Gladstones representing Link Parking had a similar case thrown out because the Judge said tickets should be self adhesive, not the flimsy things that lead to these problems. Also the signage at the scene said to display the ticket in completely different language to what was written on it.

SIP served their witness statement on me. an absolute travesty of the truth. Photos of my car, taken from a convenient distance so nothing could be seen inside the car because of reflections on the glass. The statement's author also wrote how he was annoyed that he had to 'waste his valuable time with court instead of running the company'. They conceded I probably had bought a ticket, but allowing me to get away with this would bring the whole parking enforcement industry into chaos.

Yesterday I had the brainwave to google the weather for the day in question at the location and up came a wonderful weather website, a quick examination showed when we parked, the wind speed was at it's highest for the week. So I printed that off and added it to my little file.

Today we were called on by the Deputy Judge at noon. Nobody from them for about five minutes, then in came a ginger bearded, portly, sweaty young fella who introduced himself and I recognised the name as the author of the statement. The arrogant man is in fact a sweaty, nerdy guy who was as dynamic as a biscuit. He couldn't wait to start referring to the Supreme Court ruling and the Judge immediately pointed out that had nothing to do with this case. He also accepted the submission of my weather report and I pointed out no reasonable character would argue that the wind factor wasn't the fault here. The Judge in making his decision cited these factors together with the differing instructions on signage and ticket, further adding that the signage only says 'Place in view of Windscreen', which I had done. it in no way said how long the ticket needed to be in that position and he was dismissing the Claim.

Now in the £236 that was claimed against me, Gladstones list their fee as £50. A couple of letters and they're soon in negative territory, hence no legal representation today and pass the responsibility onto the SIP dogsbody. Already down on the deal, SIP must think in for a penny and sent the brains of the operation over to do his best.

Folks, at no time did I ever fail to pay or seek an advantage from not paying. Like so many accounts on here, I too did nothing wrong, but got the full 100% treatment and all sorts of threats and tactics to try and make me stump up a totally disproportionate amount of money. I'm not a lawyer, but I took my time, answered things on my terms and if I didn't know something, I asked. Don't be browbeaten, threatened or coerced. The County Court works for everyone, it isn't the tool of the Parking companies.