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EXCEL/BW Claimform - 2015 ANPR PCN - Smyth Street Wakefield **DISCONTINUED**


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Hi

I have been in dispute over a private parking charge for over a year. I thought they had given up and had not heard from them for 6 months, then I got another demand letter and now a county court claim form. I would welcome some advice.

 

The issue date is 10 March 2017, I have filed an Acknowledgement of service

 

The Particulars of Claim reads

The Claimant's Claim is for the sum of £100.00 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant in respect of a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) issued on 17/12/2015 (Issue Date) at 20:41:09 at Smyth Street Anpr Scheme Std (60-100).

The PCN relates to under registration xxx. the terms of the PCN allowed the Defendant 28 days from the Issue Date to pay the PCN, but the defendant failed to do so. Despite demand being made the Defendant has failed to settle their outstanding liability.

The Claim also includes Statutory Interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum a daily rate of 0.02 from 17/12/2015 to 09/03/2017 being an amount of £8.98.

The Claimant also claims £54.00 contractual costs pursuant to PCN Terms and Conditions.

 

The claimant is Vehicle Control ServicesLimited (there is a typo and the space is actually missing on the form). The form lists BW Legal Services as the legal representative and address for sending documents and payment.

 

Note that Vehicle control services limited is not listed on the signage in the car park. Instead variations of Excel Parking are listed on the signs. I have never had any contact from Excel Parking. I don't know what a Notice of Assignment is, so I guess I never received one.

 

I did appeal to the IPC. The appeal was rejected, but I do not feel they addressed any of the points of my appeal.

 

The claim is for £100 PCN + £54.00 legal costs + £8.98 interest plus £25.00 court fee plus £50.00 Legal representative's cost giving a total of £237.98.

 

My intention is to defend the case, but I have a few questions.

 

1) The form comes from County Court Business Centre, Northampton. Does this mean I will need to travel to Northampton to defend the case? That's about 120 miles away from both me and the site of the alleged offence (both in Wakefield). I think there is a county court in Wakefield, can I ask it to be heard there?

 

2)My intended defence is as follows, could somebody tell me if it seems okay?

 

It is admitted that the Defendant was the owner of the vehicle in question at the stated date and time.

 

The claim is denied on the following points

1) The signage at Smyth Street - Wakefield Anpr Vcs Scheme Std (60-100) indicates that the car park is operated by Excel Parking and therefore any contract within this car park is with Excel Parking, see figure 1. I have not received any demand for payment from Excel Parking, nor has the claimant, Vehicle Control Services Limited, ever indicated that a contract has been transferred to them. I therefore have no contract with the claimant and no liability to the claimant.

2) The claimant has issued me with notice for the due amount as the keeper of the vehicle in question under powers granted by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (henceforth PFA2012). However the claimant has failed to meet the requirements of PFA2012 in the following ways:

a. PFA2012 requires that either a notice to driver or notice to keeper be issued.

 

PFA2012 paragraph 7 (4) states the notice to driver must be given—(a) before the vehicle is removed from the relevant land after the end of the period of parking to which the notice relates, and (b) while the vehicle is stationary, by affixing it to the vehicle or by handing it to a person appearing to be in charge of the vehicle.

 

Under PFA2012 paragraph 9 (2) (e) A notice to keeper must state that the creditor does not know both the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver and invite the keeper— (i) to pay the unpaid parking charges; or (ii) if the keeper was not the driver of the vehicle, to notify the creditor of the name of the driver and a current address for service for the driver and to pass the notice on to the driver. The notice sent to me dated 31/12/2015 does not fulfil these requirements.

 

The notice provided to me does not fulfil either of these requirements and is therefore neither a Notice to Driver, nor a Notice to Keeper. I am therefore not liable for any amount due as the keeper of the vehicle under PFA2012.

 

b. PFA2012 paragraph 12 (2) states “The appropriate national authority may by regulations made by statutory instrument prescribe requirements as to the display of notices on relevant land where parking charges may be incurred in respect of the parking of vehicles on the land.” The IPC provide such requirements in the IPC Accredited Operator Scheme Code of Practice 2012 Third Edition. This states in part B item 2.2 and Part E:

 

Entrance Signs: Entrance Signs should: a) Make it clear that the motorist is entering onto private land. b) Refer the motorist to the signs within the car park which display the full terms and conditions. c) Identify yourself (where you are a limited company. This should be by reference to your full company name, your company number and the jurisdiction within which your company is registered).

 

Contrast and Illumination: If parking enforcement takes place outside of daylight hours you should ensure that signs are illuminated or there is sufficient other lighting.

 

The signage as shown in figure 1 does not comply with any of these entry signs requirements. The alleged incident took place at night and as can be seen from figure 2 the entrance sign is not illuminated and no lights in the car park are functioning. The signage therefore does not comply with the code of practice and therefore I am not liable for any amount as the keeper of the vehicle.

 

3) Under PFA2012 paragraph 4 (5), the maximum sum which may be recovered is the amount specified on the notice to keeper. The initial amount requested (although, not on a correct notice to keeper as noted in my point 2) was £100. The claimant is however attempting to claim an amount of 237.98.

Even, should the court find that my defence above is not relevant, the recoverable amount can only be £100.

 

I will also include a photo of the entrance sign and a photo of the car park at night showing the lack of lighting.

 

Should I require the Claimant to prove I was the driver?

 

Thanks for any help

 

Phil

Edited by honeybee13
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Well it looks as if you've really been doing your homework.

 

The business Centre is simply a bulk processing centre. If you put in the defence then the claim will be transferred to your local court.

 

If you are going to say that you weren't the driver then you should certainly say that you put the claimant to proof that you were the driver at the time. However, I think that you would need to deny that you are the driver as long as that is actually the case

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ack the claim [AOS] on mcol website defend all

And get our CPR 31:14 running to be

 

I wouldn't like to use the defence

All that will be for your witness statement if you have to file one

 

It would be our 2 line defence for now

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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While you need to ensure that you do everything required of you in the court process,

IMHO you could do worse than send BW Legal a pretty-much-identical letter to the one in that blog entry, requesting that they discontinue their action (albeit a different car park).

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there is a problem similar to this on the Parking Prankster's latest blogspot.

 

 

You respond to the claim by firstly acknowledging the claim

and for a defence you state that

no contract exists between the claimant and the defendant because Excel are the managers of the site, not VCS and also quote the other cases.

 

 

Judges dont like it when someone else has made the decision for them

so by all means use your defence but add the previous claims that were either lost or discontinued.

 

Write to the bandits at BWL and tell them to discontinue within 7 days or you will be after a full costs recovery order as they know that VCS have no locus standi.

 

It is reckoned that Simon Renshaw-Smith, who owns both companies knows that the wrong co issued the tickets but hopes that no-one else notices.

 

 

In any other world that would be called attempted theft

but in the UK companies dont get prosecuted for it becauase they directors just point their fingers at others and no-one actually caaries the can.

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Thanks for all the comments - although @dx100uk, I'm afraid I don't really understand your post. Just because I have done research doesn't mean it is correct research! :-)

 

 

I wrote to BW about 6 months ago and told them I had no contract with VCS based on the signage. I will write again and say that I will request costs. I am self employed so I guess if I won I could be entitled to loss of earnings for attending the hearing? I have only briefly read the acceptable costs document linked above. Are those the only costs I can claim?

 

I will add the other cases to my defence.

 

Thanks again

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no, dont write yet,

get the CPR31.14 going and when they fail to send you the documents you tell the court they are being unreasonable, not them .

 

 

They know it already or they wouldnt be issiung claims based on a lie.

 

As for earnings,

you havent read what is said on other posts,

self-employed people dont get a bean because they can manage their own workload.

 

 

You can seek research and preparation costs of 5 hrs @£19ph,

all this comes later,

when you have to swap evidence bundles. long way to go before then

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Thanks @ericsbrother

As it happens I am both employed and self employed.

If the hearing were a weekday I would have to take leave to attend

- but I will read up on this to work out what I can claim.

Pointers to anything that summarises this is welcome.

 

I have now read up on what a CPR31.14 is and seen the thread on the legal forum.

 

I've now also worked out the meaning of the acronyms from @dx100uk so it makes more sense.

 

So the documents referred to in the particulars are the PCN and the payment demands.

 

So A few more questions:

 

1) Should I specifically request these documents in my CPR31.14 request?

 

2) As this is an alleged parking offence the agreement is based on signage and there is no written agreement, should I request a copy of the agreement or something else?

 

3) The CPR31.14 template includes the phrase "I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs". What are reasonable copying costs?

 

Are they likely to charge me £50 for sending me copies of the documents that I already have anyway?

 

4) Are the documents listed in the Particulars the only evidence they will be permitted to present?

 

Will they be allowed to present the IPC appeal judgement for example.

If they can add documents then will/should I request any further documents later?

 

Thanks

Phil

 

Phil

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Phil, quite a few of the recent threads on this forum have a CPR31.14 request "template" letter within them (usually pasted in from DX).

 

Have a read of those, and post here what you think you should be sending.

You should be able to use the template pretty much "as is", as the PPCs screw up on the same points.

 

Main requests will be for evidence of Planning Consent for the existence of a car park AND the signage AND the ANPR cameras, and the contract between VCS and the landowner which states that they are granted authority not only to manage the car park and issue PCNs, but ALSO to take legal action in their own right.

There are many cases on the Parking Pranksters blog in which the claim has been thrown out because no such contract exists.

 

Be specific in what you are asking for, then they can only ask for costs for providing those documents.

Chances are you'll never get these things (often because they don't exist).

 

HTH

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Not sure that this case cannot be resolved in the next week or so using the letter in the Prankster's blog-

Dear BW Legal,

 

I note that the signage at Albert Street at the time of parking was in the name of Excel Parking Services and not your client, VCS. Any contract made by the driver would therefore have been with Excel. Your client is therefore not a party to any contract and has no standing to bring a claim.

 

I therefore look forward to receiving your notice of discontinuance within 7 days.

 

If you fail to cancel the hearing I will ask for my full costs under 27.14(2)g

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.14

 

This will include my full time spent on this matter at the litigant in person rate of £19/hour.

 

I refer you to the following blog posts, which confirm you are well aware of this matter from other cases.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/vehicle-control-systems-lose-wrong.html

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/vehicle-control-services-discontinue.html

 

I will make the court aware of these blog posts should you proceed to a hearing, as well as these cases which you are fully aware of.

 

Discontinued

VCS v Zozulya A8QZ6666

VCS v Ms M 3QZ53955

VCS v Ms O C8DP9D8C

VCS v Mr H C2DP0H7C

VCS v Mr W C1DP3H5V

 

Dismissed

VCS v Ms A C6DP7P37 claim dismissed .

 

That way you get the whole thing over and done with quickly so you can claim at least £250 for data protection breach and you might get a bit more if you can work in the number of times

VCS has done this already knowing full well that it is unlawful. Also begs the question as to how many people have paid up without challenging them as we usually only get to hear when the motorist is successful. [Are the DVLA asleep at the wheel?]

 

PS Thanks to Zydeco for posting the URL earlier on this thread.

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@lookinforinfo

I was going to do exactly that,

but @ericsbrother suggested not doing so after I said I had done this already 6 months ago

(although without the reference to previous claims as I didn't know about those).

 

A little confused, but I think I will write to BW Legal again and say this.

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You could also add into lookingforinfo's post...

 

The latest discontinued case, VCS v Mrs C C8DP37CH and also, should they be foolish enough to continue the case without having any grounds to bring the claim, you will be taking action against both themselves and their clients for breaching the Data Protection Act (and the DVLA KADOE agreement) by incorrectly accessing, storing and using your personal data.

 

At this point, you might as well go in with all guns blazing as if they don't discontinue, you'll be able to use all of this in court to show how unreasonable they've been and sink their claim.

Please note that my posts are my opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of legal advice.
In fact, they're probably just waffling and can be quite safely and completely ignored as you wish.

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here is the CPR

to the solicitors

[Your address]

.

[Their address [solicitors]

.

[Date]

.

Dear Sir or Madam,

.

Re: (Claimant's name) v (Your name) Case No:

.

CPR 31.14 Request

.

On (date) I received the Claim Form in this case issued by you out of the (Name) county court.

.

I confirm having returned my acknowledgement of service to the court in which I indicate my intention to contest all of your claim.

.

Please treat this letter as my request made under CPR 31.14 for the disclosure and the production of a verified and legible copy of [each of the following / the] document(s) mentioned in your Particulars of Claim:

.

1. the contract between [parking company name] and the landowner that assigns the right to enter into contracts with the public and make claims in their own name,.

.

2.proof of planning permission granted for signage etc under the Town and Country Planning Act 2007

.

3.copies of the notice to driver, notice to keeper and any other correspondence from [insert Claimant Name] & [insert Solicitors Name} to the defendant that they intend to rely upon in court.

.

You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the document(s) I have requested are disclosed at your earliest convenience..

.

Your CPR 31 duties extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for the originals of the documents I have requested, the better for you to be able to verify the document's authenticity and to provide me with a legible copy.

.

Further, where I have requested a copy of a document, the original of which is now in the possession of another person, you will have a right to possession of that document if you have mentioned it in your case. You must take immediate steps to recover and preserve it for the purpose of this case.

.

Where I have mentioned a document and there is in your possession more than one version of that same document owing to a modification, obliteration or other marking or feature, each version will be a separate document and you must provide a copy of each version of it to me. Your obligations extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for any version(s) to include an obligation to recover and preserve such version(s) which are now in the possession of a third party.

.

In accordance with CPR 31.15© I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request.

.

If you are unable to comply with this request within 14 days and believe that you will never be able to comply with this request please confirm in your response.

.

You are reminded that as this case is yet to be allocated to a track, CPR31:14 does apply, a refusal to comply because you 'think' at this stage you dont have too will be used against you in any filed defence.

.

Yours faithfully

.

TYPE YOUR NAME DO NOT SIGN IT

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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As you wrote to them 6 months ago this shows that they are being unreasonable in pursuing this matter when they know there is no cause for action.

It is possible to claim for your expenses even if it doesnt get to court because of this.

 

 

You also now have a case precedent in your favour

so although they have started a fight they wont win it

wheras 6 months ago they would believe they were in with a chance,

 

 

they have prevuiously told courts that VCS ans Excel are one and the same so getting a claim booted out as quoted makes that argument redundant.

So, send 2 letters in the same envelope.

Good luck

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More of a pondering than a suggestion...

 

I wonder if there might be a case here for the basis of a complaint to the SRA against BWL as they have started (or are pursuing) a claim which they know full well is without merit and is thereby vexatious. :|

Please note that my posts are my opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of legal advice.
In fact, they're probably just waffling and can be quite safely and completely ignored as you wish.

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you wont win, they are a paragon of virtue, along with Gladstones and only do what their clients tell them to do. Any suggestion that they work on a contingency fee basis and collect after the event thus partaking in Champertous behaviour is totally untrue (and until someone hacks their computer will remain so)

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Oh, that old chestnut.... "Befehl ist Befehl", I seem to recall that being used before :wink:

Please note that my posts are my opinion only and should not be taken as any kind of legal advice.
In fact, they're probably just waffling and can be quite safely and completely ignored as you wish.

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  • 1 month later...

things are moving forward. I

 

 

put in my defence and I received a letter from BW Legal saying they had been instructed to pursue the case.

 

I have now received a letter indicating the case will be allocated to the small claims track.

 

 

A couple of questions

 

1) Should I agree to having the case referred to the small claims mediation service?

The only outcome that I'm really interested in is them dropping the case.

 

2) In terms of days I'm not available

- well I have a holiday booked,

but I work full time

some days are more difficult to take leave than others,

sometimes I have to travel on relatively short notice.

Is there any advice on how I can deal with this?

 

Thanks

Phil

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no to mediation.

 

 

the rest is obv

just answer the holidays/dates as honest as you can

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Share on other sites

you will get costs for any time taken off from work, your employer cannot reasonably refuse you the time off.

Nearer the date you will draw up a schedule of loss and your costs to claim them back as Excel will be undoubtedly doing things so badly you will get an order under CPR 27.2 for a full costs recovery.

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  • 2 months later...

So this case seems destined for court with a court date set. I have recently seen that another person has successfully appealed at the same car park using the same defence as me - i.e. that the signage indicates the operator is Excel, but the claimant is VCS.

 

I'm not permitted to post the link, but you can find it if you search VCS v Ms E at Sheffield. DJ Weir

 

My specific question is, can I refer to this case as precedent and if so, how do I do it properly? Is there somewhere I can get the judges summing statement or similar?

 

Phil

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I can add a few more-

 

 

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/vehicle-control-services-have-no-right.html

 

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/vehicle-control-services-have-no-right.html

 

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/vcs-discontinue-another-albert-street.html

 

I would mention all three [in fact the last example has a couple more cases included ]. Point out to the Judge that VCS therefore know well that they do not have a hope of winning in Court but press on hoping that motorists will pay up to avoid Court. It is an abuse of Process. Accordingly you are also counter claiming for at least £250 for breaches of S13 of the Data Protection Act and the waste of Court's time.

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