Apr issued ticket that i ignored that has gone to claim stage from northampton county court business

thank you , i've followed the advice given in the newbie guide , and completed the dq .so let's wait and see

Hi all so i've reached the next stage and my notice of allocation has arrived last week, so im on my next hurdle of putting together a clean witness statement/particulars for this case to be heard. I would like to ask though is there any advice that you experienced forum users can give me before i start please or will the newbie section be enough?

hi guys ,
so ive finally put together my first draft of my witness statement , to be honest i've had such a mental block after going through all the treads but here goes hopefully i'm on the right path, and i have just over a week to get this in. please excuse any spelling mistakes and grammar that may be present but am i going in the right direction please here goes

In the County Court at XXXXX
Claim No. XXXXXXXX
Between!
Civil Enforcement Ltd (Claimant)
and
brucybonus (Defendant)

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Witness Statement

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1. I am blackjew, of [Address], [Postcode], the Defendant in this matter. I will say as follows:

The facts in this statement come from my personal knowledge. Where they are not within my own knowledge there are true to the best of my information and belief
I am not liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed, or any amount at all and this is my Witness Statement in support of my defence as already filed.

1.1 The Claim relates to an alleged debt arising from the vehicle having overstayed a given 10 minute grace period by 4 minutes 36 seconds at xxxxx, xxxxxxxx on xx/xx/2017. Civil Enforcement Ltd (CEL) are arguing I was bound by unknown terms creating a contractual charge, yet this £100 was not a term known or agreed at the point of making the contract.

2 !No Notice to Keeper was received from the Claimant and the Claimant, therefore, has not complied with the relevant statutory requirements under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. In absence of such notices, there can be no cause of action.

3 The original !!!8220;Parking Charge Notice,!!!8221; allegedly issued on XX August 2033, for the incident dated XX July 2016 was never received.

4 The first correspondence (Exhibit 1) I ever received from the Claimant with respect to this PCN is dated XX September 2017, as a !!!8220;final reminder before legal action!!!8221;

5 Included with this final reminder notice was an inflated charge of £100 and absolutely no details of the location of the alleged contravention, nor any evidence of the vehicle at the scene, contract in place, or time of parking.

Upon examination it was found there had been a time frame of 19 days between time of incident and the issue of the alleged original pcn . Then if to add 2 more working days as presumed for delivery by the PoFA 2012 would have taken this to 21 days. Below is excerpt from the PoFA 2012 act stating the protocol that must be adhered-

5.1.1 PoFA 2012 Schedule 4 paragraphs 8(5) or 9(5) specify the time limits for serving a Notice to Keeper. If this is not complied with then the registered keeper cannot be held to account for the alleged debt of the driver.

A Notice to Keeper can be served by ordinary post and the Protection of Freedoms Act requires that the Notice, to be valid, must be!delivered either

1. (Where a notice to driver (parking ticket) has been served) Not earlier than 28 days after, nor more than 56 days after, the service of that notice to driver; or

2. (Where no notice to driver has been served (e.g ANPR is used)) Not later than 14 days after the vehicle was parked

A notice sent by post is to be presumed, unless the contrary is proved, to have been delivered on the second working day after the day on which it is posted; and for this purpose “working day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday in England and Wales.

I put the Claimant to strict proof of any letters they contend were served and the address used.

6 At the time I ignored the unprofessional appearing Notices sent to me by Civil Enforcement Ltd. because I believed they were spam/scam (this sort of scam had been exposed on Watchdog). Also as there was insufficient information provided within these notices (i.e. pictures/location/times) plus these were not offences or fines from an Authority like a Council, there was no reason or obligation upon a registered keeper to !!!8216;appeal!!!8217; to what appeared to be junk mail. I have since researched this, hence my knowledge that these are non-POFA PCNs, incapable of holding me liable anyway.

7 The first correspondence titled letter before action from the Claimant providing any detail of the location of the incident dates XX October 2017, again with an inflated charge of £140 at this stage. (Exhibit 2)


8 A copy of the alleged signage contract photos have not been issued or sent to me (not one of the !!!8216;PCNs!!!8217; showed the purported signs. As registered keeper, I never saw the !!!8216;contract!!!8217; they are trying to hold me liable for.

9 Received two more unprofessional scaremonger letters from a company called ZZPS with no indication or explanation to what they do, which I can only presume are some sort of debt collector’s again with more inflated fees of 60 pound each dated xx November 2017 and xx November 2017 and signed customer services. I didn’t respond due to the sheer unprofessional look of these requests. (Exhibit 3&4)

10 Received two more letters this time from a company named QDR Solicitors a subsidiary wright Hassall llp dated xx December 2017 and xx January 2018 for the first time stating the time of the incident being 0:00:00, which at that point for definite could not be the defendant. (Exhibit 5&6)


11 The Claim Form issued on the 18th poo 3018 by Civil Enforcement Ltd was not correctly filed under The Practice Direction as it was not signed by a legal person. The claim does not have a valid signature and is not a!statement!of truth. It states that it has been issued: Civil Enforcement: as the Claimant!!!8217;s Legal Representative. Practice Direction 22 requires that a!statement!of case on behalf of a company must be signed by a person holding a senior position and state the position. If the party is legally represented, the legal representative may sign the!statement!of truth but in his own name and not that of his firm or employer. (Exhibit 7)

11.1 The Claimant!!!8217;s vague !!!8220;Particulars of Claim!!!8221; provide no explanation as to what the alleged breach of the terms + conditions are. They have simply provided a date, times and location with no indication as to whether this is a case of overstaying, lack of a paid and displayed ticket, or any other reason which may have breached the T+Cs which were in place during the date of the incident - a copy of which has never been supplied to me. (Exhibit 8)

11.2 Upon examination the POC of the claim form the claimant has stated a different carpark location that to this point has been stated in previous correspondence namely xxxxxxxxxx . (Exhibit 9)


11.3 The claimant has failed to comply with Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 16 7.3(1), which state that a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement should be attached to or served with the Particulars of Claim (POC). It was not.

11.4 The Claimant also seeks to recover additional costs from the original amount set out in the POC from £100 to £2x9.60 which appears to be an attempt at double recovery and which is specifically disallowed under Section 4 (5) of the POFA (Exhibit 8).



11.5 !Furthermore, CPR 27.14 (2) (a) states that the court may not order a party to pay a sum to another party in respect of that other party!!!8217;s costs, fees and expenses including those relating to an appeal, except the fixed costs attributable to issuing the claim.!
The Claimant is put to strict proof that these costs were incurred.

12 !In order to demonstrate that the driver on this occasion failed to pay & display, the Claimant should have evidenced that, of course. Where are the photos of the dashboard showing no P&D ticket displayed? Failing that, as this is an ANPR site, where are the system records showing no payment made on these days? They have not even supplied lists of the VRNs input by drivers on those days, e.g. showing a mismatched payment, wrong VRN or no entry at all that corresponds with this vehicle.!

13 A similarly poorly pleaded and evidenced !!!8216;private parking ticket!!!8217; claim was struck out by District Judge Cross of St Albans County Court on 20/09/16 without a hearing, due to the law firm!!!8217;s template particulars being held to be !!!8216;incoherent!!!8217;, failing to comply with CPR 16.4, and ''providing no facts that could give rise to any apparent claim in law''.!


14 The Court is invited to dismiss this Claim, and to allow my wasted costs which will be submitted separately and in a timely manner, depending upon whether a hearing takes place. I firmly believe that to pursue me as registered keeper and to submit such incoherent particulars and lacking !!!8216;evidence!!!8217; is wholly unreasonable and vexatious.

I believe the facts stated in this Defence Statement are true.


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