Free Traffic Legal Advice

Wonderful, thanks!

I appreciate all your help! Wouldn’t have been confident in dealing with them without it.

This is really helpful thanks.

I haven’t had a link from the court to join the video hearing either ( I sent my email details over as requested in the time scale set out by the court)  so i’m assuming it won’t be going ahead. I will try and contact the court tomorrow morning to clarify.  If the case does go ahead I will flag the lack of WS as you’ve outlined and let you know outcome.

You have all been so incredibly helpful in your replies, thank you so much. Deadline is Tuesday 4pm but I will need to send it Mon eve at the latest because of work. I bet they will send theirs tues afternoon  main Ws doc is ready, just need to add exhibits which I now know how to format, and then I’ll be ready to send.

Nottingham county court. Thanks for link, I followed it and it threw up the same enquiries and listing email addresses so I guess I’ll use those. No WS from VCS yet…

I had another look at all the paperwork that VWFS sent through and I can see that as well as VWFS referring to Excel as the 'authority name' who sent them the CN, they also addressed their third party authorisation letter to Excel. The NTK and HN have VCS on them so perhaps there was another letter from Excel/VCS to VWFS which I haven't got a copy of where they refer to themselves as Excel? Either way, it's odd.

I have a query about how to refer to myself in the WS. The paperwork from the court has my maiden name on it. ( I have emailed court and VCS about new name).  In my WS I have used my maiden name when I've listed my name out as the defendant as that is what is on the paperwork but then I refer to my married name when I say I am the defendant and also when naming the exhibits and signing off (as that is my current legal name). Is this correct? 

Here's v2. Please let me know your thoughts. I've followed formatting guidelines and will attach a separate page which lists out all the exhibits when I send the WS. I had numbered the paragraphs but formatting has stripped them out. Will add back on when sending across final WS to parties.

In the County Court at Nottingham
Claim number: xxxxx
(Vehicle Control Services Limited) Claimant
(Maiden name) Defendant

I am (married name) of xxxx
I am the defendant and this is my Witness Statement.


On 27/6/23 I received a letter from Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) notifying me that they had received a Charge Notice (CN) Notice to Keeper (NTK) from Vehicle Control Services Ltd (VCS) regarding an alleged breach of contract by a vehicle with licence registration xxxx xxx, which had taken place at 13.54 on 26/6/23 at East Midlands Airport (EMA).  I refer to the letter from VWFS marked AW01. 

The letter went on to say that VWFS had passed my details onto VCS transferring liability of the alleged breach of contract to me, Hirer of the vehicle in question.

I would like to point out to the court that VCS’ CN does not comply with the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4) and in law, VCS are unable to hold me, the Hirer of the vehicle liable for the CN.

EMA is not ‘relevant land’ but subject to statutory control and covered by bye-laws therefore only the driver can be liable for the CN.   

As the Hirer, I am under no legal obligation to identify the driver and no inference or assumptions can be made that the Hirer must also be the Driver and the persuasive appeal court case of (same Claimant) VCS v Edward is produced in evidence. I refer to a copy of VCS V Edward marked AW02.

On the date and time in question of the alleged breach of contract, I was flying back to EMA from Naples Airport, Italy. My flight was due to land at 12.55pm.

My flight was delayed and at 13:54 I was going through passport control and confirm that I was not driving the vehicle in question.  I refer to a copy of my flight confirmation marked AW03. 

I’d also like to draw to the Court’s attention VCS’ Particulars of Claim (PoC) and that they appear to be in breach of Civil Procedure Rules 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fail to "state all facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action". I refer to VCS’ PoC marked AW04.

The PoC state that the defendant is being pursued for a “breach of contract” and the claimants state that the “sign” was the “offer” and driving onto the land was the “acceptance” but they fail to state what the third requirement to establish a contract, the “consideration” is. As the signs are prohibitive, there can be no consideration and therefore no contract can exist.

The PoC also state that “at all material times, the defendant was the registered keeper and/or driver”. That is an untrue statement and has been signed with a statement of truth, that is anything but truthful. I am not the registered keeper nor was I the driver.


I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.

(married name)
Date

I've drafted my WS. I haven't gone into as much detail as my defence e.g. I haven't included the info about EMA not having landowner authority at the time they issued the charge notice,  nor have I talked about unreasonable costs and lack of ADR as this is all mentioned in the defence. Is it worth adding to WS too?

WS below. Thanks!


On 27/6/23 I received a letter from Volkswagen Financial Services (VFS) notifying me that they had received a Charge Notice (CN) Notice to Keeper (NTK) from Excel Parking Services Ltd (Excel) regarding a ‘driving offence’ for XXXX XXX which had allegedly taken place at 13.54 on 26/6/23 at East Midlands Airport (EMA). 

The letter went on to say that VFS had passed my details onto Excel transferring liability of the offence to me, Hirer of the vehicle in question.

The letter from VFS referred me to a copy of a CN by Vehicle Control Services Ltd (VCS)  the CN stated the alleged offence as ‘stopping in a zone where stopping is prohibited’. The CN also outlined the next steps about how to make a payment if I accepted liability or how to appeal if I did not accept liability, along with black and white images of the alleged offence.  Please see exhibit A attached.

On 4/8/23 I received a Charge Notice (CN) Hirer Notification (HN) from VCS. Please see exhibit A attached.

I would like to point out to the court that I am the Hirer of the vehicle. As EMA is land that is under statutory control, PoFA does not apply and only the driver can be liable for any alleged charge. As the hirer, I am under no legal obligation to identify the driver and no inference or assumptions can be made that the hirer must also be the driver and the persuasive appeal court case of (same claimant) VCS v Edward is produced in evidence. See Exhibit C

On the date and time in question of the alleged offence, I was flying back to East Midlands Airport (EMA) from Naples Airport, Italy. My flight was due to land at 12.55pm.

My flight was delayed and at 13:54 I was going through passport control and confirm that I was not driving the vehicle in question.  Please see exhibit B attached for a copy of my flight confirmation.


I followed the process outlined by VCS on the CN NTK  and CN HN and appealed the charge on 19th August on the My Parking Charge website: www.myparkingcharge.co.uk.

In my appeal, I outlined that I was not driving the car at the time of the alleged offence and that as the land at East Midlands Airport is under statutory control , PoFA, and hirer liability does not apply.

My appeal was rejected and VCS sent me a message detailing why they rejected my appeal and what I should do next. Please see exhibit D .

I appealed to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS) on 27/8/23 but this appeal was also turned down on 26/9/23 - See exhibit E for all correspondence.

I received a Letter before Claim dated 14/11/2023. See exhibit F

I received a Notification of Instruction letter from ELMS Legal dated 19/12/23 advising they had been instructed by VCS to ‘recover the outstanding debt’. Please see exhibit G

I received a Notification of Issue of Proceedings from ELMS Legal who had been instructed to act on behalf of VCS. Letter dated 7/3/2024. See exhibit G

VCS sent me a letter dated 19/4/2024 that ELMS aren’t acting on their behalf anymore and made a settlement offer. See exhibit H

I received the Claim Form dated 5/3/202. See exhibit I

I’d like to draw to the Court’s attention that VCS’ Particulars of Claim (PoC) appear to be in breach of CPR 16.4, 16PD3 and 16PD7, and fails to "state all
facts necessary for the purpose of formulating a complete cause of action".

The PoC state that the defendant is being pursued for a “breach of contract” and the claimants state that the “sign” was the “offer” and driving onto the land was the “acceptance” but they fail to state what the third requirement to establish a contract, the “consideration” is. As the signs are prohibitive, there can be no consideration and therefore no contract can exist.

The PoC also state that “at all material times, the defendant was the registered keeper and/or driver”. That is an untrue statement and has been signed with a statement of truth, that is anything but truthful. I am not the registered keeper nor was I the driver.

Thanks. This is really helpful. I will work on my WS as soon as I can and share for feedback. Defence is all truthful but I’ll make sure to keep to the point this time.