Press Release: Robin de Crittenden wins Appeal...now the High Court

Press Release: Immediate

The People's No Campaign

"Notice of Announcement of High Court Appeal following Robin de Crittenden's Bill of Rights Parking Ticket Victory"
...Government and Local Authorities facing a loss of £1 billion a year in parking fine revenue


Photo Opportunity: Robin de Crittenden and People's No Campaign Directors Neil Herron and Colin Moran with Court papers
Location: Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London.
Time:11.00 am Monday 28th 2005

Verdict: Appeal Upheld.

Robin de Crittenden beats Worcester Council

The case of:
Robin Decrittenden v Worcester City Council

was heard at the Fownes Hotel in Worcester on Friday 18th November 2005 by Mr. Prickett of the National Parking Adjudication Service, the 'Independent' Tribunal that receive 60p from every Penalty Charge Notice issued.

The hearing in Worcester was the first public airing of the use of the Bill of Rights Defence against a Penalty Charge Notice issued, in this instance, under Worcester City Council's decriminalised parking enforcement regime.
Two hundred members of the public packed the venue.
The potential of the case is that it could expose the fact that the Government, and Local Authorities operating decriminalised parking enforcement regimes, are acting unlawfully. The consequence could be that they have no legal authority to impose 'fines' thereby threatening a massive source of revenue which is now approaching £1,000,000,000 per annum!
The Tribunal heard evidence that the Bill of Rights 1689 is a constitutional statute that has not been 'expressly' repealed by the 'ordinary' statute, the 1991 Road Traffic Act.
This requirement for ordinary Acts of Parliament was confirmed in the judgment of Thoburn v Sunderland City Council heard in the High Court in February 2002 and commonly referred to as 'The Metric Martyrs Judgment.'
Fundamental to the case against Decriminalised Parking Fines was that the Bill of Rights states:
"that all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void."
Decriminalised Parking Enforcement does not allow access to a Court of Law.

The Tribunal heard evidence of many instances of failures by the NPAS to request evidence from Local Authorities and failing to inspect evidence, yet still they still against many motorists.
Evidence also was cited, which included cases in Sunderland where £35,000 has had to be repaid to motorists with another £2.5m pending. Rochdale Council has issued over 28,000 Penalty Charge Notices with unlawful wording and the sum which will have to be paid back is over £660,000. In many instances NPAS had wrongly adjudicated.

Evidence was submitted to the Tribunal which exposed the Chief Adjudicator making prejudicial remarks about the Bill of Rights defence exposing a bias against ANY appellant.

The Tribunal also heard of manipulation and altering of NPAS and Government websites to remove the word 'fine' and replace it with 'charge' and it appears that Mr. Prickett, when making reference to the Bill of Rights, conveniently omits the 'and forfeitures' in a further attempt at obfuscation (if a PCN is not a fine then it is most certainly a forfeiture).

Mr. Prickett allowed the appeal but on a technicality...that Worcester Council had conveniently failed to supply any evidence of a Traffic Regulation Order. If that was the case then the hearing should have taken two minutes and not four hours.

It is therefore the intention to appeal the successful appeal to the High Court on a point of law in order to expose the fact that ALL decriminalised parking fines are unlawful and ALL motorists are being unlawfully persecuted by local authorities operating decriminalised parking schemes.

Robin Decrittenden states,"They are running away because they know the law is bigger than they are hence the situation in Worcester where the Adjudicator admitted that he had failed to inspect Council documentation in the past but is now saying that Councils have the job of proving their case."
People's No Campaign Director, Neil Herron states, "This is the first head on conflict exposing the highly suspect Metric Martyrs Judgment. If the Judgment is correct then decriminalised parking fines cannot be levied. Alternatively, the Metric Martyrs were wrongly convicted. It is our intention to put an end to the unacceptable and unaccountable governance and this decriminalised parking is simply an unlawful stealth tax on the motorist."
ENDS

Contact:

Neil Herron
tel. 0191 565 7143
mob. 07776 202045

Colin Moran
mob. 07802 448 635
metricmartyrs@btconnect.com

Robin Decrittenden 01902 417 045

More information to be posted at:
www.neilherron.blogspot.com and www.thepeoplesnocampaign.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Press Release from Worcester Hearing of 18th November here

Full text of the National Parking Adjudication Service decision here

Press Statement from Robin de Crittenden for 28th November 2005 here

The People's No Campaign has grown out of the Metric Martyrs Campaign which successfully halted the Government's persecution of traders for using imperial measures.
The campaign team ran the successful No Campaign in the North East referendum defeating John Prescott's proposals for an elected regional assembly.
The campaign has grown to oppose the European Constitution and has recently forced local authorities to remove the EU Flag from public buildings.