Assistance with witness statement & defence - Pretty Please!sr

[ABCDE3]

Hello lovely people.

I have been reading through this forum for a little while and have seen some great feedback and guidance for people that has helped them with their case outcomes. If anyone can be of assistance, I would be much obliged!

Current Status:

Telephone hearing due to take place in 2 weeks. Witness statement needs to be submitted from me within the next day or so. (Leaving it a little late, but trying to gather as much information as I can before submitting) Have received witness statement from claimant, along with photos of signage, ‘contract’ between them and the landowner etc etc.

Backstory:

We are talking about 2 tickets from Nov & Dec 2016 - charge notices from CP Plus Ltd (Groupnexus) for overstaying approx 1 hr on each occasion at motorway service station. ANPR images provided, all dark (evening visit), barely able to make out the car or the plate etc. Notice to keeper issued on both counts, allegedly, though I have never received anything in the post - they have provided copies of what they allegedly sent. 4.5 years later - at a new address, I received a claim form, all a bit of a shock to me, claiming outstanding bill of £453 + Court fee of £35 + legal cost of £50 totalling £538.99

I responded and denied any knowledge of the claim in question. I stated that I had not received any PCN or anything from them prior to the claim form. I stated that there was no evidence provided to me that would enable me to defend the claim or establish if there was even any legitimate claim against me. I made a not that there was no offer to settle this out of court and therefore due process was not being followed to avoid wasting the courts time with this matter. I also mentioned that this could not possibly be a legitimate estimate of loss in any case, as the amount claimed was far in excess of any PCN that would have been issued in any case.

They have since sent though witness statement, photos of signage, a letter from the landowner saying that a contract was in place and continues to be. The hearing goes ahead by the looks of things…

I understand I have to now provide a witness statement and work on my defence argument. If there are any templates for witness statement that I can download and edit that would be awesome to have a link or something.


Thanks in advance.

[ostell]

Witness statement is just a recount of what happened from your perspective. And gives you the chance to intoduce exhibits

too late for defence but have you read Excel v Wilkinson about excessive charges added
https://www.dropbox.com/s/16qovzulab...inson.pdf?dl=0 You may be able to introduce it

Estimate of loss is no longer a valid argument after Beavis

[ABCDE3]

Thanks for the prompt reply Ostell.

I have read the attached case and will be certainly using that as an argument during the hearing if indeed the judge decides that the claim is valid and finds in favour of the claimant - I am hoping that I will still be able to to revert to the original PCN amount, based on the circumstances. I am also planning to question the right to audience of whoever these guys send to represent them in court, is that a fair move to make at the start of the hearing?

with the witness statement, I’m assuming that that’s not an opportunity to ‘defend’ my case, but just to state the facts? In the claimants witness statement, they have a whole section on ‘defence’, along with ‘debt recovery costs’ and all sorts. It doesn’t seem like a traditional witness statement, and even concludes that they believe the case should be struck out and awarded in their favour. Can my witness statement be a rebuttal of theirs?