Gladstones client PCM UK hit with £1500 unreasonable costs order

PCM UK v 'Sassii'

This case has been reported on MoneySavingExpert.

The defendant was being pursued for three parking charges totalling £300, plus fictitious charges of £180 added by Gladstones department of random numbers, £22.39 interest and legal costs of £130, totalling £632.39. Gladstones finest, Jamie Ashford made a bit of a dogs breakfast with the claim form, scribbling additions here and there.

Gladstones failed to pay the hearing fee or send in any evidence meaning that the claim was struck out.

A hearing was then held to determine costs.  Coupon-mad and Loadsofchildren123 assisted with the case and with producing a comprehensive costs schedule, charging at the litigant in person rate of £19/hour. This impressed the judge who said they had ''never seen a professional one like that before''

Originally the judge was intending to order only the amount of the claim form but the defendant explained to him that PCM / Gladstones never supported their claim with any shred of evidence and that they personally spent 3 months going around,  printing and managing thousands of pages of paper and exposing their personal details to Gladstones. The defendant ended stating they thought it is a type of fraud designed to waste a defendant's time if they didn't pay the alleged PCN.

In total, the defendant asked for £2607.

The judge said: ''It's unreasonable behaviour from a commercial company against an individual but I can't allow all the amount the defendant asked for and I order £1500 against the defendant's costs''.

The amount is payable within 14 days - by Monday 30th October 2017.

Prankster Note

The Prankster notes that any potential customers of solicitor Jamie Ashford, SRA Id 435535 should bear in mind that due to his lack of respect of the civil procedure rules they are potentially exposing themselves to unreasonable costs orders. These can of course be significant, as the above shows.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster