I received this morning the following claim form from CEL after overstaying in the car park of the Coop in Whitby back in April 2013.
I don't think I have kept any other documentation about this event. Am I doomed?
Any help would be very gratefully appreciated.

What a joke of a claim....but you will have to go through the hoops to see them off. They really are a bunch of s****

Firstly you must acknowledge service using form N9 saying you will defend in full. The stage after that is to send in your defence on form N9B before 28 days from the date on the claim.

To get you defence together search for all the CEL/Coop threads here. The claim is light on detail so you should send a request for "further and better particulars". In addition, your defence should contain the request to strike out the claim as having no merit as the claim has shown no cause for action.

Bottom line is that this is a company that uses the court to bully people. A lot just ignore and get tripped up by the system. Complain like mad to the Coop about this and demand a copy of the contract they signed with CEL.

If you got a letter from DEAL where the debt has been assigned, let us know too.

CEL will only do court where is there is no need to explain themselves i.e. undefended claims, as they claim back all the court fees. So they are ripping off the courts too by having them do the work and getting the money back at the last moment.

CEL are rapidly becoming the new holder of the most vexatious, amoral, disgraceful PPC (taking the mantle from PE). Their behaviour beggars belief and is a complete abuse of the court system for which they ought to be locked up for contempt. And it's largely the Coop's fault, (a) for getting into bed with such a bunch of chancers in the first place and (b) for attempting to cover up their incompetence in contract negotiation by paying off CEL when people complain about the court claims, thus only helping to feed the monster they helped create. Put this squarely in Coop's court (as well as filing a decent defence, whereupon CEL will ultimately give up).