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Wednesday 25 October 2017

Private Parking Solutions London Ltd lose 18th consecutive case

25/10/2017 D7GF4H98, Staines. Private Parking Solutions London Ltd -v- Mrs A, before District Judge McCulloch

Guest report from Bargepole

Claimant represented by: Mr Shippard

Defendant represented by me as Lay Rep (a guest appearance on behalf of the Ashford Parking Group, who have been campaigning long and hard about this site).

This was another case from the notorious Ashford town centre car park, which is split into two sections with two different PPCs, and no clear demarcation as to which bit is which. PPS have now been turfed out (as of June 2017) by the new Leaseholder, Greene King brewery, for their aggressive ticketing, but have a back catalogue of unpaid tickets from when they were still operating. Before today, they had brought 15 cases to court in either Staines or Guildford, and all 15 had been dismissed.

There were a number of defence points, but the main ones that the Judge quickly identified, were that a) the defendant had purchased a P&D ticket, which was evidenced in her bundle; and b) there was a letter from Greene King confirming that PPS were not authorised to pursue charges.

Mr Shippard tried to get the Judge to look at a Land Registry plan which was on his laptop, but as the Defendant hadn’t been served with it, and it wasn’t in the Claimant’s bundle, she was having none of it.

It was accepted that Mrs A had purchased a valid ticket, which may have blown over when placed on the dashboard. But none of that mattered, because the Claimant had, yet again, failed to demonstrate that they had any authority to act in that car park at the material time. Claim dismissed, and £98.60 costs awarded to Defendant. We asked for further costs for unreasonable behaviour, but no dice.

An application is now being prepared for an Extended Civil Restraint Order, to be submitted to the Circuit Judge, prohibiting PPS from issuing further claims relating to that location. This will include a list of the 16 claims that have previously been dismissed, and will argue that they should not be wasting the court's time with claims which clearly had no merit.

Channel 5 TV came along, filming the Defendant and members of Ashford Parking outside the court before and afterwards, for a four-part documentary they are making about parking (council and private).

On the way to the pub afterwards, a message was received from another PPS victim whose case was being heard at the same time in Guildford. This one was dismissed almost before he sat down, as the Judge spotted that the Claimant’s photos were of a completely different vehicle. He had flown in from Spain for the hearing, and was awarded his full costs of £280.

There was another case involving PPS at the same court, before the same Judge, at 2pm, with a different lay rep.

Unsurprisingly, that was dismissed as well.

Prankster Notes

There does seem something wrong with the system when a company brings 18 cases to court and lose them all.

A large share of the blame must lie with the company that brings these claims to court, Gladstones Solicitors and their owners John Davies and William Hurley. These two individuals claim to understand parking related law. It is is clear from this debacle they do not. Equally worrying is that the same two people are allowed to own and run the International Parking Community**, a trade body whose members are allowed access the the DVLA keeper database.

The Prankster believes there should be a mechanism to remove access from the DVLA database from companies and associations who abuse the privilege like this.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

** The International Parking Community have nothing in common with the Independent Parking Committee (apart from sharing the same initials), who are a different organisation. Any claims from a parking company that they belong to the Independent Parking Committee are likely to be fraudulent and should be reported to Trading Standards.



19 comments:

  1. Credit has also to got the woman behind this fight, Michelle Arnold. She is a force to be reckoned with and is way ahead of many in the fight against PPC's. She has a loyal band of admins and Tom Trinder also deserves a mention for his massive contribution to preparing these defences. Many hours of time and research got us to this point! Anyone wishing to donate to the next phase will find Michelle's appeal on Go Fund Me. This won't be the finale either, I'm sure the Prankster will keep you posted , For such a small car park it has so far been a resounding success on how to beat a PPC! To press all done for free by all those involved. Winning is the reward!

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    1. Thank you Hazel its been a huge team effort.

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  2. Well said Hazel. Bargepole should apologise for taking the credit for all Michelle and Tom’s hard work.

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  3. It’s all been thanks to the hard work of Michelle Arnold that PPS are no longer operating on the site in Ashford. Not content with that she then, along with Tom Trinder, took on the court cases which resulted in the 18-0 win. It was Michelle and Tom who wrote ALL the winning defences. Bargepole came in on the last case and now seems to be taking all the credit! Shame on him!

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    1. Bargepole is absolutely not trying to take all the credit. He simply provides court reports for the cases he is involved in. If anyone wants to put together an overview article showing all the hard work Michelle and Tom have put in, I'm more than happy to blog that as well. I think it's fantastic what they have achieved here.

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    2. I did mention at the start of the report that the Ashford Parking Group have long been campaigning on this issue. And it was Michelle who asked me to lay rep for this particular case. All of the 'glory' belongs to her and her team, and they were the ones interviewed by Channel 5 afterwards, I stayed off-camera. I was just a hired gun for the day, and id what I was asked to do.

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    3. What Bargepole is saying is correct. Michelle was actually on a well deserved break and she knew that Bargepole would be a safe pair of hands to lay rep. Some of us don't seek publicity, but hopefully Ashford will inspire people to follow the blueprint? There are more phases of this to come, obviously we are all aware of PPC's monitoring fight groups so from early on it was decided that 'need to know' was pertinent to success. I'm sure there will be more revelations to come, The appeal is flying, a full account of spending will be reported too, as transparency is crucial when people are kind enough to donate. Tenacity has paid off.

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    4. As one of those involved in this I do not see Bargepole's involvement in this in anything other than a positive light and certainly don't consider his involvement an attempt at glory seeking as some are trying to suggest. His involvement has been extremely useful for all of us and we are glad to have him on board as his vast experience can only have a beneficial effect and help us put this sorry saga to rest.

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  4. I sent 23 individual complaints to the BPA regarding this parking company PPS London Ltd because they failed to reply to all the appeals I sent to them and then they sent all 23 to DRP. Its taken months of complaints and the BPA and DVLA have now closed their files and brushed it under the carpet. The BPA refused to issue sanction points for all these breaches of their code of practice. The BPA don't want to see their members run off and join the IPC so they allow their members to act like cowboys to the point of the parking company altering the the wording on the NTK letters and contract. The BPA are not bothered about this and now act like the IPC.

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    1. This is obviously poor governance from the BPA. Companies cannot be allowed to ignore appeals or it makes a mockery of the whole system. An independent regulatory body is sorely needed.

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    2. some people have to play dirty to get the truth. I know someone who set up an email address that looked like PPS London and asked some question regarding this matter. this email trail shows the BPA telling PPS London Ltd not to worry. I have added an x to cover the names of the BPA
      Hi xxxxxx

      Could you confirm that no sanction points will be placed against my company? I appreciate your help throughout this matter.
      Yours Faithfully
      XXXXXXX

      Private Parking Solutions London Ltd


      b@britishparking.co.uk wrote

      Hi Jakub

      Please don’t worry, but I do need to speak to xxxxx first and then I will get back to you.

      Kind regards,

      xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
      Compliance Officer
      British Parking Association


      b@britishparking.co.uk wrote

      Hi Jakub

      xxxx has informed the DVLA that the Tony Taylor/Ashford Car park case is closed, so unless I hear otherwise from him, then yes. All is well.

      Kind regards,
      XXXXXXXXXXXXX
      Compliance Officer
      British Parking Association

      b@britishparking.co.uk wrote
      Hi xxxxx

      Jakub is asking if he will be sanctioned over the Tony Taylor case BPA-11682

      The case is closed with the DVLA, can I close this off now with Jakub?

      Kind regards,

      xxxxxxx
      Compliance Officer
      British Parking Association


      b@britishparking.co.uk wrote
      Jakub

      Thanks for your note to xxxxxx.

      I have sent further correspondence from Mr Taylor to you on the other e-mail address.

      Once you have addressed the concerns therein, I hope to able to close the case once and for all.

      As things stand, I have no plans to apply Sanction Points.

      Best

      xxxxxxxxxxx
      Head of Business Operations
      British Parking Association

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    3. As Tony says, the BPA have been an utter joke and from day 1 sought to sweep this whole thing under the carpet despite numerous complaints. The DVLA have been little better, simply bouncing them back to BPA who, again, sweep them under the carpet.

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  6. and another one bites the dust - 19 on the trot, now.

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