Civil Enforcement Limited try again to trick motorists into not turning up

The Prankster recently reported a court case where Civil Enforcement Limited made phone calls and sent texts to try and bluff the motorist into not turning up at the hearing.

Now it seems CEL are at it again. This post on pepipoo details how CEL phoned up and tried to bluff the motorist into missing the hearing.

However, late this afternoon, I received an e-mail from Lindsay Currie at Creative Car Park asking me to call her urgently to discuss the case. I rang to no avail, so I sent an e-mail saying that I was quite happy to see them in court but if they wanted to discuss it with me, to call me. Literally two minutes later, I received a phone call from someone purporting to be from a solicitors firm to discuss the matter. At first he wanted to discuss settling the case, but when I told him that I was not willing to settle for anything other than written confirmation that the hearing had been vacated, he started to say that he wasn't willing to put anything in writing and that he had spent too much time already on this case and just wanted to agree now, man to man, that this was the end of the matter so we didn't have to waste time at a hearing. When I pressed him on the written confirmation, he became irate and slammed the phone down telling me he would " see me in court".

(Creative Car Park are one of the names CEL trade under)

If CEL turn up at court but the motorist does not, they will win and may be able to get high costs. If the motorist turns up but CEL does not, the motorist will win and may be able to get high costs. If neith party turn up, the result depends on the judge. If both parties turn up, then the motorist has always won so far if the defence is good.

Therefore, trying to trick the motorist into staying away is a good tactic for CEL>

Prankster Note

The Prankster advises taping phone calls when you can. Although the recording may not be admissible as evidence, you can make a transcript, which may be admissible.

In any case, consider creating a supplementary witness statement detailing the events. Make 3 copies and hand one to the judge and state you have a procedural matter to bring up right at the beginning. You can state this phone tactic appears to be a regular occurrence and refer to my blogs as evidence. Ask if a contempt of court has occurred.

If you meet the 'man in a cheap suit' from CEL before the hearing, hand him a copy, state you will be bringing this to the attention of the judge and watch what colour he turns.

He will no doubt try and protest to the judge that the witness statement is filed after the deadline, but your response is that this is an important matter and the judge can overrule such deadlines if he sees fit.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster