DCBL Notice for Parking Fine at MOTO Heston West (CP Plus PCN)

[MIKE770]

no sounds scammers?

[PallasAthena]

I am having an issue with the same company. I have a parking ticket from 5 years ago, it was for staying too long in a garage parking space, I paid for petrol and bought a sandwich and ate it being driving off. I don't believe I outstayed the time limit and contested it with them and sent a proof of debt letter which was ignored.

Today I have received a Civil National Business Centre Claim form threatening a CCJ if the debt isn't paid. I have tried to pay on line and on the phone and DBS has no record of my name, address, car reg or any of the references on their paperwork on any of their systems. I contacted the car parking company MET and they have no record of it either.

I simply have no way to pay and am now facing a CCJ.

Mhead

Please start a new thread of your own. Posting onto someone else's ongoing thread makes it very confusing for everybody.

When you copy your post to a new thread can you also upload a copy of the document you have received with all personal details and all reference numbers covered up to keep you anonymous.

[Azukaorin]

Hi des8 and all,
Apologies for the lack of update. There's not been any developments until now. I've received the dreaded notice of legal action from DCB Legal.

Before that, I'd sent the letter directly to CP Plus as discussed earlier in the thread. I heard nothing for a good 4-6 weeks, then received another notice DCBL, just with the same old threatening letter. I ignored it, then today received the legal notice for £170.

Can anyone offer advice as to how I should proceed from here? As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

[PallasAthena]

Please post up what you have received from DCB Legal with, as before, everything that could identify you (including any of DCBL's own reference numbers) covered up.

[Azukaorin]

Please post up what you have received from DCB Legal with, as before, everything that could identify you (including any of DCBL's own reference numbers) covered up.

Hi Pallasathena,

Thank you for your quick reply! I've now posted copies in Dropbox here, alongside the past notices. The new notice can be seen in the "DCB Legal [Front/Back]" : https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/thwwh...egij4r99o&dl=0

[des8]

Reply along the lines that you do not admit owing their client diddly squat.

Tell them you have already pointed out that their client's original Notice to Keeper ( of which you were supplied with a copy on dd/mm/yy)
only requests the driver of the vehicle pays the alleged outstanding charge and fails to comply with PoFA 2012 to transfer liability to the keeper.

Remind them the driver has not been identified, Accordingly you require they supply the evidence they intend to rely on that the Defendant was the driver of the vehicle at the time the alleged parking infringement occurred.

IMO it's not worth disputing with them any further than this at this stage because they will go ahead regardless.
For them it is a numbers game, and they will push to the wire.
Some of these firms leave it till the last minute before withdrawing (or not turning up at court) whilst others go through the court process anyway, as it is a bit of a lottery

[Azukaorin]

Hi Des,

Thank you for your reply.

I've responded via their online response form to dispute the claim, and provided a copy of the letter sent to CP Plus and the certificate of postage. I've invested in fighting it for this long, so I feel it's worth seeing it through.

Annoyingly, the form forces you to then go through 9 pages of "Financial Statement", requesting information about your workplace, salary, dependents, amount in savings, costs of all your individual bills, and all sorts. It's sickening that they force you to go through such intrusive channels to simply submit a dispute. I responded to every field I could as "Not relevant". I guess it's now a waiting game for their next move. I'll post an update once I have one.

Thanks again to everyone in this forum for your support.

[des8]

You could always write to them via first class snail mail, with free certificate of posting from post office.
That way you have a paper trail if it is necessary to produce evidence in court!

As a general rule I always confirm by letter any telephone call, or hard copy any email.
Unfortunately I never trust a business now a days.

[Azukaorin]

des8 hoping you and the rest of the contributors on this forum enjoyed the holidays and new year!

Thank you for the advice. That's a great idea. Today, I sent both CP Plus and DCB Legal a letter to reiterate my position. I made sure to grab a postage certificate too

Now it's just a waiting game to see what they do next.

[Azukaorin]

Hello, all!

I have received an email response from DCB Legal. I find it really strange and would love to hear some thoughts. It reads:


Dear azukaorin,

We write in response to your correspondence received in our office dated 05/01/2024. We now respond to the same as follows.
Please find attached a copy of our Reply Form and Financial statement.

For clarity, our Client does not comply with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 therefore your points bear no relevance in the matter.

Our Client applied to the DVLA for the name and serviceable address of the of the Registered Keeper. Your name and address were provided, and Notices were issued accordingly. On the balance of probability if you were not the Driver of the vehicle on the contravention date you would have nominated the Driver. As you have failed to do this you are presumed to be the Driver and therefore liable for the outstanding balance.

You now have 30 days from the date of this email to make payment of the outstanding balance of £170.00. Failure to make payment will result in a Claim being issued against you without any further reference.

Payment can be made via bank transfer to our designated client account: -
· Account Name: DCB Legal Ltd Client Account
· Sort Code: 20-24-09
· Account Number: 60964441

You must quote the correct case reference (XXXX) when making payment. If you do not, we may be unable to correctly allocate the payment. If further action is taken by us as a result of an incorrect reference being quoted, you will be liable for any further fees or costs incurred.

Alternatively, you can contact DCB Legal Ltd on 0203 838 7038 to make payment over the telephone or online at https://dcblegal.co.uk/response/pay-online/


What I find most strange is the line "For clarity, our Client does not comply with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 therefore your points bear no relevance in the matter."... What does that even mean? I don't see how any entity can just opt-out of the act, but I admit that this isn't any area on which I'm particularly well-versed.

As ever, any advice would be most appreciated.

[des8]

what they are saying is that you are not being pursued as keeper of the vehicle, but as the driver, and so the provisions of PoFA 2012 are of no relevance in this instance.
You could continue the game of letter tennis and write telling them that their argument that on the balance of probabilities the keeper is the driver if he fails to identify the driver is a load of hogwash. Why would the keeper identify the driver when it was admitted the keeper could not be pursued?
You could point out that all they can assume is that probably the registered keeper knows the identity of the driver, and that they are aware the registered keeper has no reason to divulge the driver's identity.

OR
you can pay their demand

You could also draw their attention to what Henry Greenslade, barrister & lead Adjudicator for PoPLA, wrote in their 2015 annual report:
"However keeper information is obtained, there is no ‘reasonable presumption’ in law that the registered keeper of a vehicle is the driver. Operators should never suggest anything of the sort. Further, a failure by the recipient of a notice issued under Schedule 4 to name the driver, does not of itself mean that the recipient has accepted that they were the driver at the material time."

[Azukaorin]

Thank you des8 . I was completely baffled by their response, but now it makes sense that they're being purposely vague to dodge my points and apply more pressure.

I really appreciate you sharing that section from PoPLA's report! That's a nice addition. I've now located PoPLA's published reports and I'm having a flick-through myself.

I've responded by email, but I assume the recommendation is to also follow-up by post. I'll get that done and will update the forum, as ever.
I'm stubborn and I'm interested to see where this goes

[Azukaorin]

Hello again, all!

There's been another period of silence whilst I awaited some kind of response from DCB Legal. Here are the latest events:

As per my last update, I responded to their email, politely asking them to clarify what they meant. I went on to explain how I am interpreting what they're saying (which des8 kindly laid-out for me), pointed out that their case is based on a "balance of probability" that I am the driver, explained that my original points and position still stand, and drew their attention to Henry Greenslade's excerpt from the PoPLA 2015 report. After hearing nothing for 3 weeks, I emailed again to request some form of acknowledgement of my email. Today, I received the below:

Dear azukaorin,
We write in response to your correspondence received in our office dated 15/02/2024.
We now respond to the same as follows.
Our Client’s position has been clearly outlined in our previous response and we will no longer respond to the same points raised.
You now have 7 days from the date of this email to make payment of the outstanding balance of £170.00. Failure to make payment will result in a Claim being issued against you without any further reference.
...
blahblahblahblahblah
....


Highly frustrating. I'm not too sure what my options are at this point, or what I can expect to happen if I continue to not pay (I don't intend to pay, but I guess I should understand what the consequences of that might be). Is it basically guaranteed that I'll be hit with a CCJ? Can anyone offer any advice as to what I might expect will happen from that point?

Thank you. As ever, I really appreciate everyone who has followed my silly saga and has cared to offer their input.

[des8]

I would not waste any more time writing to them.
They will push this to the wire, so you can expect a court claim in due course.
They do have a habit of discontinuing at the last moment (altho' that cannot be guaranteed!)

If you should lose, you have 30 days in which to pay the judgment award before a CCJ is registered against you.