PCM/Gladstones Claimform - scratched 7am not PM on visitors voucher - Tachbrook SW1 V (Peabody Estate Pimlico, London).

[Disgruntled driver2022]

Thank you

 

[honeybee13]

Good luck today, please let us know how you get on.

HB

[Nicky Boy]

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Nicky Boy

[Disgruntled driver2022]

Hi all, as I figured, my defence wasn't so good.

They took my mitigating circumstances into account so that let me off with filing late witness statements.

They accepted my defence but what went against me was the fact that I did not state that earlier to the parking company.

The judge said, if I had stated that earlier, she would have viewed the matter differently, but the fact that I had let it get to this stage without asking them to consider the reason why I had got the ticket, she has to rule in their favour.

Also, that they provided all the info I had asked them for and showed clearly that all the usual arguments had been met e.g. clear signage, authority to manage the parking area etc.

However, she said I only needed to pay the ticket price, solicitors and admin. She was not going to allow all the cost they asked for or the interest. Which is still a lot cheaper than what I had expected. 

The lesson I learnt was not to ignore the ticket. The judge didn't like the fact that I did nothing, which forced the parking company to take it all the way to court, which cost them unnecessary expenses.

[Nicky Boy]

Bad luck Disgruntled...

Would have been interesting to see what was in your witness statement.

It looks like you didn't actually post one up for the guys to read.

I know you left it a bit late and had trouble getting help to write it.

From your comment, "They accepted my defence but what went against me was the fact that I did not state that earlier to the parking company" i'd suspect your WS was fairly basic and probably didn't contain multiple arguments.

The advice is always to throw the kitchen sink at them... everything you can think of.

Edited June 23, 2023 by Nicky Boy

[Disgruntled driver2022]

Well, to be honest, I felt they had me bang to rights from the start, so I should have tried to plead with them.

In this case, If I had contacted the parking company and said I made a genuine mistake from the off, and they had continued to pursue it in the courts, the judge I had today would have acknowledged that and would have said you tried to explain and would not have ruled in their favour. But who knows, it might not have made a blind bit of difference to another judge. 

Anyway, I know better if it ever happens again.

I am just glad it is over. I have 14 days to give them £212.

[dx100uk]

who said that?

if they got judgement you have 28 days?

[Nicky Boy]

So the judge accepted that you had a valid defence, but ruled in the fleecers favour simply because you didn't use their (crooked) appeal process.  

Sounds very odd to me.

[Disgruntled driver2022]

Yep, And she definitely said 14 days!! I thought she’d got that wrong too. 
 

maybe she tried to stitch me up?

[dx100uk]

well neither that, nor the fact you must contact the ppc is correct..so i'd go with judge lottery.

you are wrong on this...

2 hours ago, Disgruntled driver2022 said:

Well, to be honest, I felt they had me bang to rights from the start,

and i've gotta say you've somewhat yourself to blame too for not getting that ws up and checked properly and dragging your feet at nearly every stage.

dx

[FTMDave]

I've been on this site for seven years, and have never seen a judge take into account the fleecers' appeals procedure.  Very strange.

PCM are members of the IPC, and in IPC cases we generally include a quick paragraph in the WS ridiculing the extreme bias in the trade association's appeals process.  It's unclear if you did this.

[Disgruntled driver2022]

The main issue was, I had no real idea what I was doing. I didn't understand most of what I was reading on this site, and didn't know how to use it. So I didn't understand most of the arguments I relied on.

It seemed that the judge didn't even really look at much of that. She mentioned where I brought up that they didn't have right to manage the car park, and referred to the document I sent you, which showed that they did have a right.

Aside from that, she didn't mention anything else as such from my defence. it's done now.

Lesson for me to learn is not to to ignore it. I can see that in my case, if I had contacted the parking company and explained what had happened, it would have given me a better chance. Then if it got to court, it would look like I had tried to resolve the issue beforehand, and that I had tried to avoid going to court.

But as it stood, it looked like I did nothing to explain myself, forcing the claimant to rack up unnecessary costs in order to take me to court. She didn't take kindly to that and felt I should compensate them with something.

Unfortunately that's just how my case went. Given that my defence at that stage was so weak, I needed assistance from someone more familiar with these matters, because I clearly was not.