Hi all,
I hope you can give me some advice. I have just received a County Court Claim relating to a Smart Parking PCN issued in 2022. I appealed the claim which was unsuccessful. After advice I received on Pepipoo I ignored the subsequent demands which have come occasionally since then.
It was a classic double dip scenario. I dropped my kids off in the the carpark so that they catch the bus to school. However, a bridge was out and the buses were not running, so I had to return a couple of hours later to pick them up and drive them to school. Both times, I was in the car park for just a few minutes. The first 2 hours are free. However, the APNR did not appear to pick up that I left and returned, so they are claiming I was in there for over two hours.
In between my two visits I dropped my other child at his school, went home, and met up with friend close to my home. All of this was on the other side of the city to the car park and I could not have done it with having driven back.
In my appeal I provided evidence that I dropped the other child at school on the other side of the city, a statement from the friend that I met up with, texts from my children asking me to return to the car park to pick them up, evidence that the buses were cancelled. I also provide evidence that the same thing had happened to me before and has happened to others in the that same carpark. Yet it was still rejected on the grounds that none of this proves the car was not in the car park during this time. Apparently the burden of proof is on me to prove it was not.
Should I now respond to the County Court Claim with my defence, or is it likely that (as with the appeal) this will be rejected in court as insufficient evidence?
Thanks in advance for your help.
