Hi Guys, Drove by a mobile speed camera with the dash potentially indicating up to 80 mph (the speed i never exceed in my car). My GPS tells me that 80 on the dash is 77 mph GPS. Do you think I will get an NIP in the post? I know the ACPO guidlines are prosecute at 79 and above, but I am worried the trigger happy police may decide to prosecute for below, like 77! If I do for going 77 in a 70, can I defend it in court? I have a Mini Cooper and it's annoying how the speedo is in increments of 20 MPH! Thanks for letting me know!

I am in a very difficult situation with DEL. I was using a hire car. The hire car sent me the charge. I made the payment or at least I thought I made the payment. My bank statement shows payment gone through but DEL received anything. It turns out that there was error with the bank processing system and somehow the last digit of account number was missing. The bank processed the transaction and have resent the original amount. DEL claims that they sent me a letter for payment which I never received. And I have asked them numerous times in the last week to send a copy of the letter that they sent. First they said that it was sent recorded delivery. I asked who signed for it and they didn't respond. Then they admitted that it was never sent. Now the MD of DEL wrote to me stating that letter was sent. I don't have a problem with paying the charge however, I never received any notice from DEL that payment was due until I received letters from Gladstones and their Debt collectors. Please is anybody able to provide any guidance or advice about my rights? Below is the copy of the email received today: ----------------------------- Dear Sailesh, Your email has been forwarded onto me to review. Looking at the case , it would appear that judgment was entered against you on 31/08/2016. As such, we regret that we cannot accept the original charge amount and that we will be pursuing the full judgment amount. If you wish to resolve the matter, please make payment for the outstanding amount at your earliest convenience and we will ensure that our agents notify the Court that the judgment has been satisfied. Please note that we are unable to accept payment directly. Further details of how a County Court Judgment is obtained can be found at the following link: Trust online link We trust this answers your queries . Please note that we will not engage in protracted correspondence regarding your Claim and subsequent judgment. You’ve been given the opportunity to dispute the matter and we are now in a position whereby we will seek to enforce the judgment against you. If you wish to dispute the judgment then we would suggest that you seek independent legal advice as to how this may be achieved. Kind regards, Dyl Kurpil LLM/LLB (Hons) Law Managing Director

Earlier this year we received a speculative invoice masquerading as a parking ticket from Smart Parking. I simply wrote to Smart Parking explaining the legal position and they immediately cancelled the invoice. Given what I've read here and the document they sent I thought I would pursue the matter through my local Trading Standards. Having passed the matter through Consumer Direct, I heard precisely nothing. I had to ask twice to even get a TS reference number. I eventually made a complaint which was fobbed off. I have posted the level 2 complaint I made below and I have set out the response to the level 2 complaint in the next post. I intend to go back at them again and then refer the matter to the Ombudsman. I write with reference to my complaint referenced above and to the letter dated 18 September 2013 sent to me by Lee Ormandy, Business Intelligence and Legal Manager. I note that Mr Ormandy’s letter concludes Stage 1 of your complaints process and I now wish to escalate this matter to Stage 2. By way of background my original complaint to Citizens Advice was regarding a “Parking Charge Notice” received through the post from Smart Parking Limited also known as Town and City Parking. My concerns were: 1) This document is designed to resemble a Penalty Charge Notice issued by a local authority when it merely has the legal status of an invoice. 2) The Parking Charge Notice was issued to me as the registered keeper of the vehicle but given that it is an invoice and governed by contract law, it should only be issued to the driver at the time the incident occurred. As such, sending it to the registered keeper means that it is a speculative invoice. 3) The Parking Charge Notice contains the following sentence: “This may result in a summons or writ being raised for recovery of the outstanding Parking Charge Notice”. This is clearly intended to mislead the recipient as to the company’s recovery powers. Given that this is governed by contract law, the correct recovery route is through the county court and this is extremely unlikely to result in any form of summons or writ but rather a county court claim. In my opinion this sentence implies that the company can recover the invoice balance through the magistrate’s court which it clearly cannot. 4) Private parking companies such as Smart Parking Limited very rarely pursue county court claims and hardly win any that they do. This is because they are rarely able to identify the person they should sue to the satisfaction of the court and under contract law, the amount claimed cannot exceed the actual loss incurred. It is very hard to demonstrate losses equivalent to the £60 to £100 set out in the Parking Charge Notices. When I received my Parking Charge Notice I replied setting out many of the points above and challenged the company to commence legal proceedings. Within seven days they cancelled the Parking Charge Notice. I referred this matter to Trading Standards through Citizens Advice because I was concerned that companies such as Smart Parking Limited are attempting to secure payment of speculative invoices designed to resemble council documents and threatening legal remedies that they could not, in fact pursue. I was extremely disappointed that it took two attempts to obtain a Trading Standards case reference for this matter and then to find that I did not receive any acknowledgement or reply from Trading Standards. Having raised a stage 1 complaint I was astonished to find that my request for any documents relating to this matter produced no results. It is clear that Trading Standards have done absolutely nothing in response to my complaint except perhaps to include it within a statistical return. As a council tax payer this falls well short of what I would expect. I note that Trading Standards claim that they are unable to pursue all cases and that they apply criteria in their selection process. Having reviewed those criteria I believe that my complaint satisfies two of them: 1) Given the number of private parking tickets issued nationally, this matter will certainly affect thousands of Surrey residents each year because other private parking companies issue almost identical documents. 2) Many residents will pay these tickets because they believe that they are legally required to do so. This is particularly true of elderly, young and other vulnerable residents who are unaware of the legal status of the document they receive. I would be obliged if you would consider this as a stage 2 complaint.

Hi help please! East Surrey waters solicitors sent me a letter 17th June saying reply in 14 days or we will take yout to court for the approx £270 you owe. I replied in writing immediately explaining my difficult position (2 babies, recently become single parent) please could they accept payment arrangement of £50.00 per month by DD. I had not heard back from them until today i received a claim form from the local county court for the amount o/s and court costs etc. I called them up and explained i had sent the letter requesting payament arrangement but the girl said nothing she could do as it had not been received. I have to go to court. I send everything by recorded delivery but can I find the receipt for this one, NO!! Im so annoyed with myself, ive searched high and low, I have however found the receipt for the posting i did that day which shows i paid for a recorded signed for letter but just doesnt give me the tracking nuimber! Can someone advise what i could do about this. I have been working hard to repair my credit rating sp really upset this has happened