Gladstones letters after Armtrac parking charge

Unfortunately I need some assistance with a matter that has been going on for over a year now.

I was naïve at the start and was open and honest - assuming that common sense would prevail with these people - I have since learned that this is wasted on them and they are very unprofessional. So much so that there are many typos in their correspondence and sometimes slightly wrong facts!

The start of it was on 23/10/16 at Sandy Acres beach car park in Hayle Cornwall.
I am never one to shirk car park fees so paid for a two hour ticket and went on the beach with my dogs and family members.
I came back to my car within about 1.5 hours to find a PCN on my windscreen. I could see that my parking ticket had blown over in the wind (unbeknown to me) and upside down on the dashboard. The ticket was for failing to display a valid ticket.

I sighed to myself and read the ticket. There are options on the back to pay and how to appeal etc.
A few days later I wrote to Armtrac, explaining the situation and apologising for the inconvenience to them but that I would hope that they would cancel the PCN as this was obviously a genuine error. I sent photos that I had taken of the ticket next to the date/time on my watch when I returned to my car. It showed the ticket number matched that shown on the back (which I was able to see on their website that they had taken images of) and clearly showing I was back well within the time that I had paid for.

On 15/11/16 I received a letter back from Armtrac. Much to my surprise they pointed out that my appeal was rejected.
They on about the terms I agreed to by reading the signs and parking on the land. The they say that I have breached the Terms and Conditions by having my parking ticket FACE DOWN ON THE DRIVER'S SEAT when inspected by the Officer, therefore the PCN was issued correctly. There is a long paragraph then about how the ticket was FACE DOWN ON THE DASHBOARD and not displayed securely and clearly etc etc.

They went on at length about terms and conditions of the car park and their responsibility to the landowners etc. They enclosed a copy of these and directed me to look at the images they held of my vehicle. They then state THIS APPEAL IS NOW CLOSED AND OUR DECISION FINAL.
Options were given to appeal to the IAS or pay the reduced rate of £60 in 14 days.

I made an appeal to the IAS on their site and after a few days they came back saying that my appeal failed.

On 21/12/17 I received another letter from Armtrac confirming that the IAS appeal was rejected and that I now lose the right to the discounted charge.

They demanded the full £100 be paid to them within 10 days or it would go to debt recovery agents or the County courts, which will incur extra costs.

I refused to comply with this as I was very angry.

Next, on 17/7/17 I received a letter from Gladstones Solicitors LETTER BEFORE CLAIM.

Client - KBT Cornwall Ltd £160

Bullet points of this letter are that the debt relates to parking charges, PCN number and date as well as my vehicle reg.

They refer to me to Practice Direction for Pre-action conduct, particularly paragraphs 13 to 16 about sanctions that can be imposed.
Demand for paying full amount within 14 days or provide an acknowledgement of the letter and a full response within 14 days.

They state that if I fail to give a satisfactory response they can start proceedings without further notice and add costs.

Again this infuriated me. Getting completely out of hand!

I responded within 14 days, saying they had not complied with the correct information for a LETTER BEFORE CLAIM and they should do this correctly if they want a full response. (or words to this effect). This is now the start of August 2017.

I heard nothing for 6 weeks and in that time thought that they had gone away!

Lo and behold I get a letter dated 10/10/17 apologising for a late reply. They tell me I have asked for copy of the notice affixed to my vehicle (I did not)and a copy of the contract between their clients and the landowner (I did not. They say that they do not see how these documents are relevant. As the contract is between me and their client, their client does have the authority to enforce parking charges.
They quote VCS v HMRC (2013) and Parking Eye v Beavis (CA 2015).

They state that they hope this clarifies things for me and that the £160 is still outstanding and they will give me a further 21 days to pay. Failing this their client may instruct them to commence legal proceedings.

I wrote back saying that due to the late reply and no explanation for it then the matter was clearly not urgent and that I would wait the same length of time to reply to them further (6 weeks).

This time is now up and I have since looked more deeply into this matter and realised that I should perhaps get some more expert advice!

I have found out who the landowners are and have penned a letter today.I have apologised for directly but that this matter is getting out of hand. I parked on their land and paid in good faith. My honesty has led me to correspond with Armtrac to sort the matter but they are becoming threatening and harassing.
I have asked that given the circumstances they perhaps consider cancelling the charge as this is not a matter of dishonesty on my part.

I apologise for the very lengthy spiel but this really needs sorting out and these people treat this like a sport!
If I had risked it and not paid to park, I would have paid up at the start and taken it on the chin but this is not the case!

Hopefully someone can give me some good advice on where to go from here?

Please?:mad: