I’m in a mess here trying to sort out a PCN which my wife received in dec 2012. It is causing so many problems over £165, I am in the position where she (my wife) just wants me to pay the damn money now to be done with it but hopefully someone will be able to assist with a defence letter.
The situation is that In 2012 we took our aged parents and young children for a day out on Sunday 30th Dec 2012. I was driving my wife’s car that day. We parked in the CO-OP, as we had done a number of times before, and went shopping. We were in the store for a while as you can imagine with small children and elderly people we came out loaded up the car and then left the carpark to get some fish and chips. Usually at this point you showed your receipt to the man in the booth and he let you out for free. This day there was no man in the booth and the barriers were up so we just drove straight out, putting it down to the fact it was a Sunday and the 30th Dec.
After we ate the fish and chips we drove back to the co-op as we had forgotten nappies and it was only after we parked in the nearly empty carpark we realised that the shop had closed at 4pm. We left the carpark and drove home. On the 15th Jan 2013 we received a Parking enforcement notice (dated monday 14th Jan) from CEL for £90 or £45 if paid in 14 days. As you can imagine my wife was pretty upset with me and I spent an evening “googling” to see if it was a “real” parking ticket or not. After seeing various posts from people in the same position on MSE and Pepipoo we ignored the notice and consequently received a Parking Contravention final reminder 2 weeks later for £90. Which we ignored.
All went quiet until 14th August 2013 when we received a letter from a company called Roxburghe stating that it was “re: unpaid parking charge notice” and now the amount due was £150. We ignored the letter (my wife getting more agitated with me by this point)
Then on the 27th August 2013 (13 days later) we received a letter from gbp solicitors “re: Roxburghe (UK) Ltd acting on behalf of Civil Enforcements Ltd” with the amount now £207.25. We again ignored the letter.
Then nothing until 24th Jan 2014 when we had a “notice of assignment of debt” from CEL. The amount is £130 in total split into £113.75 and £16.25 of which apparently the £16.25 is going to the Co-op ? We ignored again.
Finally on the 4th july 2014 my wife received some Claim forms from Northampton County court. The time we apparently parked is stated by them as over 3 hours and it looks as if they think we never left the carpark and came back.
So far I have tried to read all the info I can and I am still unsure as to what to put in a defence letter. I have emailed the “Acknowledgment of service” asking for a further 14 days and have tried to put together a letter to send the co-op, which as I am to understand is now probably not worth sending ?
Many thanks in advance for any assistance.
Duke74
Ps please dont shoot me down in flames as i know the subject matter is regularly on this forum