May 2012 - Legion Group Parking Fine

On the 1st of May 2012, due to a charity event that I was involved in, I had cause to visit a town I had not been to for a few years and I parked my conveyance on land that I've always known to be in the care of the local Council, land on which has always been used for the parking of such conveyances. There had never been any "charge" for doing so.

On this day though, it seems that the local Council had now resorted to demanding a payment from people wishing to do this. I suppose a nominal fee is fair enough, so I decided to purchase a ticket, 50p an hour if I remember rightly.

I looked at the ticket machine, whereupon it requested that I enter the registration number of my vehicle. Hmmmm, I thought, I do not want to enter, what I believe to be my personal details, so as there was no other way to purchase a ticket, I went about my lawful business.

Upon returning to my conveyance, a mere 15 mins later, I noticed a man nearby to my windscreen, hurriedly scurrying away when he noticed me approaching. The man, who was wearing a bright yellow jacket in broad daylight, had left me a notice. This is what it said.

Parking Charge Notice
To the driver of this vehicle............NOT DISPLAYING A VALID PAY AND DISPLAY TICKET..................You are therefore liable in accordance with the regulations to pay a parking charge notice of £40.00. It is an offence under Sections 32 and 35 (1) and (3) and Schedule 9 (Part III) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to contravene the provisions of the order and for a driver of a vehicle to fail duly to pay the parking charge. This parking charge will be reduced to £25.00 if you forward your remittance to the address below within the period ending at 4.30pm on the 7th day following issue of this notice

Failure to pay the parking charge may result in your name and address being requested from the DVLA and action being taken through the Magistrates Court to recover amount due.

Well, I thought, they're telling me that as I never bought a 50p ticket, that I now had to pay £40? seems a tad extortionate to me. The way I saw it was that if anything, I could only possibly owe the loss, which was 50p.

If I didn't pay, apparently they would find me and take action through a Magistrates court (Star Chamber - a court without a jury). A court without a jury? That's simply NOT a court of law, so I decided to ignore the extortionists.

On 25th June 2012, I recieved a letter from 'Legion Group', stating that the DVLA had "informed"  them that I was the registered keeper and that as this 'vehicle' had parked in a car park provided by the local Council and in breach of the regulations applying to the car park, a parking charge notice was attached to the vehicle giving details of the alleged (alleged, indeed) breach, and requiring a payment of £40.

It went on to say that, I, as the keeper, am responsible and I have the options of, a) stating who was driving and making them pay or b) send them payment myself. Where was the court/challenge  option I thought?

It went on to say, debt or recovery action may be taken, requiring I to pay court costs, the court may also fine me, really? a county court fining you over a civil matter?

The letter was signed, "Yours sincerely, Traffic Office.

Now there are many ways of dealing with such letters. I believe it's best to start at the beginning, and get the overall picture.

This letter, who is it from? do they have the jurisdiction? the right? to fine you such an extortionate amount over such a trivial amount and matter?

The letter is signed, "Yours sincerely, Traffic Office". Who is Mr Traffic Office? seems a strange name, but is this a human being, a living soul?. I decided to write back and ask them.

Dear Traffic Office,

I write with regard to your letter dated 25th June 2012 Ref: K/56406.

Please note, I am a law abiding man living under a common law jurisdiction only.

Subsequently, it is my policy when dealing with matters or allegations such as the one described in your letter, to deal only with either the alleged injured party (an individual or human being), a Police Constable serving under oath of office, or a Crown Court with a jury.

I do not recognise Private Limited Companies with whom I have no contract with and I am under no lawful obligation to supply such companies with my personal information or with payment of any purported fine prior to a conviction by a jury of my peers.

Should you wish to discuss this matter further, please confirm and supply evidence that the individual named “Traffic Office” who wrote and signed the letter dated 25th June 2012 and who stated, “The Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency has informed me that you are the registered keeper” is in fact a human being.

Should you be unable to do this and you still require to discuss this matter further. You will need to supply a letter signed by the injured party to the allegation or their representative, either of whom must be a human being.

Please note, I’m unable to enter into any further correspondence with human beings unknown, private companies, legal entities, legal fictions, imposters or extortionists. Such correspondence will be ignored without any liability on my part.

On the 9th of July, I recieved another letter from Legion Group, ignoring my comments in my letter above and basically repeating what was said in the previous letter. This was not signed, but printed were the words again, "Yours sincerly", Traffic Office.

I responded with this letter,

Dear ‘Traffic Office’

I write with regard to your unsigned letter dated 9th July 2012. This letter confirms that You (an anonymous person, who has ignored my request for you to furnish your identity) have made an allegation/ claim against me.

In order for me to deal with such a claim I must first of all ascertain, as to who it is that is making such a claim or allegation i.e the individual, human being and/or living soul, before I can properly make investigations into the alleged incident.

Please note: I cannot deal with this matter without this information.

As I instructed in my previous correspondence dated 26th June 2012 (copy attached), you will need to confirm and supply evidence that the individual named “Traffic Office” is an individual, human being and/or living soul or failing that, a letter signed by the injured party to the allegation or their representative, either of whom must be an individual, human being and/or living soul.

Furthermore, should you be able to supply the above information, and should you then go on to supply the said information, it is only fair to inform you that I will also require copies of the following;

1) A copy of the order alleged to be in effect at the time.
2) Irrefutable evidence of any alleged OFFENCE (ie photographic/video evidence)
3) Confirmation that you (the human being) have authorisation to issue PCN’s

You are hereby warned, that my administration charges for responding to any further notices sent to me without the enclosure of the above requested information, are currently £300 per hour or part thereof for my time and labour, and £500 per letter sent to “Legion Group”.

Legal action may be taken in the event of this occurring, should payment not be made.

Yours Truly,
Huyton Freeman

As of 23rd Jan 2016, Mr Traffic Office has not responded.