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Parking Eye charge at Morrisions Stratford

I received a penalty notice from Parking Eye yesterday for parking at the Morrison’s in Stratford and not buying a ticket. Unfortunately I do not have a receipt from Morrison either. I was just waiting from my wife to return and was sitting in the car for half an hour. I had no knowledge that someone will be using CCTV images in a private car park and issuing a fine.
In my case I deliberately did not buy a ticket. The charge notice they sent only shows a picture of me driving into the car park and one leaving. I suspect they have other pictures which show no ticket displayed on car.
They have offered me to pay £50 by end of the month. Should I ignore them? Do they have any remote chances of pursuing me for not buying a ticket?
Any advice on this would be very much appreciated.

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Comments

  • AltheHibby
    AltheHibby Posts: 733
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    edited 17 February 2012 at 9:43AM
    They will not pursue you. In any case, if your Morrisons is like my local one you did not cost them anything as any ticket was fully refundable in store.

    Repeat this mantra while waiting for the kettle to boil: I will ignore Parking Spy. Then make a nice, strong cup of tea and read the stickies at the top of the forum. The Watchdog one shows you how to enjoy yourself with their paper.

    Whatever you do, don't reply for any reason short of any official court papers arriving. Which is about as likely as Celtic bailing Rangers out of their PAYE arrears.
  • bondy_lad
    bondy_lad Posts: 1,001
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    edited 17 February 2012 at 10:07AM
    firstly you have not, i repeat not recieved a penalty charge notice,,a penalty charge notice is legit and you have to pay,though can appeal,,,,,what you have recieved is a ,,parking charge notice,,which has no legal backing whatsoever,,nothing can/will be done to you as a result of recieving,,an unenforceable invoice which equates to loo paper,, so do now with it what you usually do with loo paper,,oh yes, you will however recieve various threat o grams through the post on or behalf of parking spy/lie/eye, whatever you prefer to call them,,the advice is simple,,,,,ignore absolutely everything you recieve,despite silly/useles/idol threats nothing can be done, whether you paid to park or not(though we do advocate paying to park) so relax, feet up, fa cup week end,glass of wine, do the lottery etc etc.remember,,,,IGNORE.do however, inform the manager of morrisons that you will take your business elswhere as a result of pe and ask him/her how many other complaints have they had,,takings will go down and you mr manager may lose your job.
  • AlexisV
    AlexisV Posts: 1,890 Forumite
    I would ignore.
  • Kite2010
    Kite2010 Posts: 4,304
    First Anniversary First Post Home Insurance Hacker! Car Insurance Carver!
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    Most likely when you pay you would have to enter your registration number into the machine, the CCTV only covers the entrances & exits.

    And IIRC isn't that the store where Parking Eye tried to charge the Park and Ride Buses which went around to the bus stop at the front of the store?
  • AltheHibby
    AltheHibby Posts: 733
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    edited 18 February 2012 at 3:37PM
    Kite 2010 Seriously? That's as bad as when TFL sent proof to an Edinburgh company that their vehicle had been spotted in a London bus lane. They got a video in return proving that it had at the time been in an Edinburgh bus lane, but that was okay as it was an Edinburgh bus!
  • HO87
    HO87 Posts: 4,296 Forumite
    MoZaman wrote: »
    I received a penalty notice from Parking Eye yesterday for parking at the Morrison’s in Stratford and not buying a ticket. Unfortunately I do not have a receipt from Morrison either. I was just waiting from my wife to return and was sitting in the car for half an hour. I had no knowledge that someone will be using CCTV images in a private car park and issuing a fine.
    In my case I deliberately did not buy a ticket. The charge notice they sent only shows a picture of me driving into the car park and one leaving. I suspect they have other pictures which show no ticket displayed on car.
    They have offered me to pay £50 by end of the month. Should I ignore them? Do they have any remote chances of pursuing me for not buying a ticket?
    Any advice on this would be very much appreciated.
    As has already been said - repeatedly - you have not been fined and nor have you received a penalty notice. No private company, least of all ParkingEye, has the authority under statute law to fine anyone.

    What you have been sent is simply an invoice. An "invitation to settle", in strict legal terms, a breach of contract that ParkingSpy allege you committed by not abiding by their rules designed to enable them to make a considerable living by "farming" car parks. They can pursue you, quite properly, for their reasonable losses but even in a P&D car park that will amount to the cost of a ticket that would have covered your stay. Their use of a "discount period" (that coincidentally mirrors Penalty Charge Notices issued by local Councils) makes a mockery of the suggestion that they are asking just for their losses and their sizeable profit - derived substantially from car park "farming" gives the lie to it.

    Car park "farming" is about minimum investment and maximising returns. There will be a pair of cameras at the entrance and the exit to enable PE to create a log of vehicles that have entered and left. They then compare the log to the P&D ticket machine records (or simply against a time limit in the case of their so-called "free" car parks). Et voila, a seemingly idiot-proof list of vehicles that didn't have tickets. Except, who gets their registration number right every time? Who knows that they have to enter it in the first place? All this is done remotely in their offices in Chorley.

    There will be no other CCTV images of vehicles without tickets so you have nothing to worry about on that score.

    As with any unsolicited invoice you have a choice not to pay it. The advice here, based on the way in which these companies operate, is simply to ignore them. File the letter (and the others you will receive) and just get on with your life. After a while the letters will stop and that will be that.

    They could take you to court but that costs considerable amounts of time and money (Around £5,000 last time they tried it in Manchester and the judge refused their costs even though they technically won). That time and money is, from their profit-driven perspective, far better invested in chasing other innocent dupes who will simply pay up.
    My very sincere apologies for those hoping to request off-board assistance but I am now so inundated with requests that in order to do justice to those "already in the system" I am no longer accepting PM's and am unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future (August 2016). :(

    For those seeking more detailed advice and guidance regarding small claims cases arising from private parking issues I recommend that you visit the Private Parking forum on PePiPoo.com
  • Thanks to every one for their advice and support. I will be steadfast in my refusal to pay......
  • vax2002
    vax2002 Posts: 7,187 Forumite
    a scam that impersonates authority, study the impersonation bit and you will find what you have is a invitation to pay a invoice.
    My advice, reject the invitation, keep your money, completely ignore them, find a child to demonstrate how IGNORING works, copy them.
    Get ready for changes in character during the impersonation, fake court threats, fake solicitors, fake debt collectors, fake phone calls from fake debt collectors.
    All to go with the fake parking ticket they gave you, from a fake authority company.
    Hi, we’ve had to remove your signature. If you’re not sure why please read the forum rules or email the forum team if you’re still unsure - MSE ForumTeam
  • Ignore. Do not pay. End of.
  • hi
    i use this car park all the time and my daughter works there , i have never seen any machines to pay ?
    as far as i know they take photos when going in and out of the car park time you then send a notice through the post , did you get yours there and then ?
    i once had a parking eye fine from the coop on wales i ignored all 3 letters and heard no more
    message me for more info if you need to
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