Parking and traffic fines - Company Car

epicurus

Hi,

I'd be grateful for any advice on the following. Either your own experience or any recommendations of people to get advice from.

1) A friend of mine has over 1000 pounds of parking fines going back to last year
2) Some of them are as recent as two weeks ago and the oldest are a year old. One of the old ones has resulted in a court summons.
3) Her company has just gone into administration leaving her with over 100,000 pounds in debts
4) She has about 300,000 pounds equity in her house
5) All of these fines were received on company business
6) She owns the car and is a director of the company
7) The company pays the insurance and petrol
8) The car is also used by other people at the company.
9) She is convinced that some of the fines were caused by other employees using the car as a pooled car.
10) She suffers from manic depression and has been extremely anxious and stressed as a result.

Untimately I'm wondering if she can aviod paying anything if the company is responsible for the fines rather than her personally. Otherwise any other ideas given the information above to try and overturn the fines?

Thanks

sporedude

If she owns the car woudnt that make her responsible?

bargepole

epicurus wrote: »

1) A friend of mine has over 1000 pounds of parking fines going back to last year

Are these real fines, as in Council or Police, or toytown bogus fines from Private Parking Companies?

epicurus

bargepole wrote: »

Are these real fines, as in Council or Police, or toytown bogus fines from Private Parking Companies?

None of them are from private companies. They are mainly council parking/traffic offenses but one is speeding.

king100

I would strongly suggest that she seeks legal advice in regards to the debt.

It would also depend on what type of company she set up as to whether she is liable for the debt.

nearlyrich

I drive a company car, I am responsible for parking and other offences, the company is not responsible for someone breaking the law the driver is, it's been the same at every company I have worked for.

sarahg1969

nearlyrich wrote: »

I drive a company car, I am responsible for parking and other offences, the company is not responsible for someone breaking the law the driver is, it's been the same at every company I have worked for.

But if you are driving a pool car, the company should know who is driving the car at any particular time. Any NIPs will go to the company in the first instance, and if they cannot identify the driver, then that's their fault. And that only applies to speeding, in any event. In the case of parking, the authorities will just pursue the RK.

nearlyrich

If it was a pool car and there wasn't a record of who was driving the directors of the company would be held responsible. As the person was a director of the company and it was her car I think she might be responsible. It doesn't matter if you get a ticket on business it would still be the driver's responsibility.

epicurus

nearlyrich wrote: »

If it was a pool car and there wasn't a record of who was driving the directors of the company would be held responsible. As the person was a director of the company and it was her car I think she might be responsible. It doesn't matter if you get a ticket on business it would still be the driver's responsibility.

Thanks for all of your input. It seems that the responsibility rests with her for the fines she incurred.

She does insist that two of them are from other employees. Who does the burden of proof lie with with regards to who was driving?

Anyone know any free sources of legal advice for traffic fines?

bargepole

epicurus wrote: »

Who does the burden of proof lie with with regards to who was driving?

Anyone know any free sources of legal advice for traffic fines?

For parking fines, the registered keeper is responsible for payment.

For a speeding ticket, there is a legal requirement for the RK to disclose the driver's details, under s172 of the RTA. The penalty for failure to do so can be more severe than for the speeding offence.

The forums at www.pepipoo.com are a good place to start.