E.Kent Hospital PCN's sobell/white taking me to small claims court **Discontinued**

[EmainMacha]

My ex employer is taking me to court for non payment of parking fines.

 

I parked to load and unload equipment as part of my job, as i use my own car to travel between sites doing quality assurance checks on x-ray equipment etc.

 

I used to have a "hot parking permit" to allow me to do this, but the rules state that you need to do 12 trips a month and have proof for three months to qualify.

 

For some reason the rules started to be strictly enforced.

 

I had a slack three months, lost my hot parking permit and kept getting tickets.

 

I still had normal staff parking permit, but there are never any spaces after 9am and I might not get back from another hospital till pm.

(which is why we used to get the hot parking permit, which gave us dedicated space right outside our place of work).

 

I thought I was being chased by Roxborough, but East Kent is taking me to court.

 

Is it worth trying a solicitor or is it throwing good money after bad.

[dx100uk]

type up or scan up the PoC.

 

set your default scan page size to A4 less than 300DPI [150 will do]

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets - as a picture[jpg] file

don't forget you can use a mobile phone or a digital camera too!!

'

BUT......

ENSURE: remove all pers info inc. barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all monetary figures and dates.

*********************************************************

{DO NOT USE A BIRO OR PEN OR USE SEE THRU TAPE OR LABELS]

try www.pdfescape.com TO BLANK STUFF,

*************************************************************

or

DO IT IN MSPAINT.EXE or any photo editing program

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites ...

http://freejpgtopdf.com/

if you have multiple scans/pics

put them in a word doc FIRST and convert that to PDF

or use www.pdfmerge.com

convert existing PC files to PDF [office has an installable print to PDF option]

..

 

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf if

you have many images too rather than many single pdfs

.

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

try and logically name your file so people know what it is.

though dont use full bank names or CAG in the title

i'e Default notice dd-mm-yyyy TSB

.

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

.

dx

[EmainMacha]

Thank you for the guidelines. Much appreciated

missed pdf step but will do again if required.

Hearing adjourned to 1st May

[firstclassx]

Far too small to see. Needs to be a PDF or much bigger JPEG.

[EmainMacha]

Sorry took a while to get pdf convertor to work

[ims21]

Sorry....attachments unapproved....too many reference numbers and reg no which would identify you. Please cleanse and re-post

[EmainMacha]

As is perfectly obvious, I don't really know what I am doing.

Thank you everyone for your patience.

[dx100uk]

aha

 

sobell / white

i though they were closed down

 

dx

[instrumentsofjoy]

aha

 

sobell / white

i though they were closed down

 

dx

 

Because he issues so many claims Michael White is obliged to take an occasional one to court. I believe once he is faced with a determined defence - he backs off.

 

He personally is unlikely to turn up due to age.

Edited March 12, 2013 by ims21
mistake

[havinastella]

Why has it been stayed?

 

Have you issued a defence?

[EmainMacha]

I filled in a form Defence and Counterclaim and under G Other Information put

" I worked for East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust in the Medical Physics Section. I used my own car to take equipment for measuring x-ray alignment, output image quality to outlier hospitals at Margate, Ashford, Sheppey, Medway. I need to load and unload equipment at my workplace at Canterbury. My employer was fining me for doing the work assigned me."

I made no counterclaim.

Michael Sobell has acknowledged receipt of defence.

I paid monthly for my staff parking permit. You pay no extra for Hot Parking, but have to justify it, on 12 trips per month, documented for three months on renewal. I have asked in FOI for percentage of Hot Parking Permit holders that can be demonstrated to have proved this, as it appeared to me to have turned into a management perk.

[DBC]

Are you a member of a union? If so then you should get them involved in this. It's unbelievable that you are being penalised by your employer for just doing your job. The lack of parking spaces is not your fault, it's the hospitals. As for those sums of money being demanded then they can only claim for the actual losses they have suffered not those stupid amounts they are demanding.

 

This case is very similar to those from Aintree Hospital, where they have wasted thousands of pounds in chasing people for petty parking infringements and losing in most cases. That money should be spent on patient care.

[EmainMacha]

We gave up on unions after trying to go through that route with the mess made of husband's redundancy. The union support was worse than useless. I did talk briefly to my old rep before I went to another job. As I was leaving anyway, it came to nothing. I havent bothered joining union in my new job.

 

I also talked to my line manager who was acting head of medical physics. That went nowhere.

 

This would be typical nhs management, we are a tiny department and if there wasn't legislation covering what we do (radiation protection) mangagement would happily close us down in an instant. When we lost our old head of medical physics his salary still appeared in our budget, but was going to a chap none of us had heard of . The lady who really manages us (part time worker on about £6,000 a year) tracked down who was doing his annual leave, it appeared the money was being spent on someone hired as consultant to look at fraud inside the nhs. You couldnt make it up.

With the new guidance coming in we will all soon be privatised anyway and provide as good a service as the privatised cleaners and agency staff.

[peanutsallergy]

If you parked there to load/unload, how long was the car there each time, and do you have a record of the equipment you needed to load/unload if it was difficult to carry.

If those were from 2010/11, have you further tickets each month up to the present as you carry out your job, or have you a permit again?

Or have the hospital realised their mistake and provided the correct parking now?

[EmainMacha]

I left to work at another Trust in Dec 2011.

Picture attached of all equipment for CT and wall checks on one trolley about 50kg. Usually two people would take this gear, but on one rare occasion i pushed all this at once. I would usually push about 25 to 30kg on trolley.

 

To get everything out and packed away, might take me ten to fifteen minutes, but if I got distracted by work it could be longer. I could get a ticket immediately if parking attendents happen to come around, whether I had an unloading sign up or not and whatever the length of time I had been parked there.

[peanutsallergy]

Looks a lot to carry!

No problem proving you had a need to park by the entrance door to unload anyway.

And if all the tickets where issued within minutes of you stopping, some even before you had the chance to get an unloading sign up, it would be reasonable to argue you weren't even "parked", just unloading as required by your job and contract.

(You did move your car as soon as you could didn't you?)

[esmerobbo]

Sobell recently lost a case for east Kent hospitals, unfortunately the defendants posts on MSE and youtube were obnoxious so were removed, but I seem to remember the judge agreed they were an unlawful penalty not a recovery of a loss!

[EmainMacha]

FOI request

"We can confirmthat East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) holds theinformation you have requested and is set out as follows:

1. The numberof staff parking places provided at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital between April 2011 and April 2012. Please specifywhether these places were general staff or “hot parking” spaces.

We can confirmthat EKHUFT provided 702 ordinary staff parking spaces and 41 hot parkingspaces.

2. How manymembers of staff based at Kent and Canterbury had a staff parking permit issued between April 2011and April 2012. Please specify whether these permits were for general staffparking places or “hot parking” spaces.

We can confirmthat EKHUFT issued, on average, 1381 staff parking permits. We are unable tosupply a figure relating to hot parking spaces specifically at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, as these permits are not site based, as are thestandard permits. "

There was never anywhere to park it was always a nightmare, I don't know if there was a permissible time allowed for unloading equipment, I had not noticed anything but I supose I could ask.

[peanutsallergy]

Sobell recently lost a case for east Kent hospitals, unfortunately the defendants posts on MSE and youtube were obnoxious so were removed, but I seem to remember the judge agreed they were an unlawful penalty not a recovery of a loss!

 

Must still be a thread you can link to, or do you mean the MSE posters were obnoxious and the thread was removed?

[DBC]

Must still be a thread you can link to, or do you mean the MSE posters were obnoxious and the thread was removed?

 

No it was just one poster who was severely criticised by the other posters and was banned. Instead of just coming on there and saying he had won , he started laying into everyone else because he mistakenly thought that when told to "ignore", that applies even when you receive proper court papers.Nobody had said that. Instead he was told to ignore until those papers arrive, then you go proactive. He even accused some MSE regulars of being "Sobell's spies".

 

Here is the thread for what it's worth :- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4273601&highlight=east+kent+hospital

 

From post #8. It's a bit disjointed as the banned member's posts have been removed, but some of them appear in quotes in other posts.

Edited March 12, 2013 by DBC

[esmerobbo]

Must still be a thread you can link to, or do you mean the MSE posters were obnoxious and the thread was removed?

 

Unfortunately he jumped on a long standing thread using several usernames but was kicked off each time and his posts removed. Saying that he didn't really explain what his defence was, he said he was going to pay for a transcript and post it up. Until I pointed him to the fees for transcripts.

 

I think I can recall some of the usernames I will see if I can find anything.

[DBC]

Se my post above.

[esmerobbo]

Se my post above.

 

Cheers, nothing useful in there is there unfortunately!

[peanutsallergy]

If that's what happens on MSE if you claim to have won, god help us.

It's a schoolyard.

[DBC]

I know you don't like that forum but please don't tar the whole of MSE with the same brush. He was a one-off and was given short shrift by the other members.