Parking Fine - Am I in the wrong or right?

moneysavingmaniac

Hi Guys,

I have just received a parking fine of up to £100 from MET parking services.

It relates to the gym I use in Sheffield (Pure Gym).
If you use the gym the parking is free.
Normally when you go into the gym you also sign your car in. And as it goes this one time I forgot to.

Saying that, the machine you sign your car in is sometimes down and the staff just say oh its broken it doesn't matter today so you get out of the habit sometimes.

If I can prove I went into the gym do I have a case to not pay it?

Thanks

peter_the_piper

You don't have to prove anything. If you made the mistake of appealing two things happen, 1) they get your address without having to go to the dvla and pay £2.50 and 2) they will reject the appeal. As its MET just ignore them and remember to sign in next time.

Tilt

peter_the_piper wrote: »

You don't have to prove anything. If you made the mistake of appealing two things happen, 1) they get your address without having to go to the dvla and pay £2.50 and 2) they will reject the appeal. As its MET just ignore them and remember to sign in next time.

Why? It's a PPC so they cannot 'fine' you or issue a penalty. In law, all they can claim off you is 'losses' or 'damages' from you parking there and If the parking is free, how can they recover any 'losses'?

As with all private 'parking charge notices', ignore. Yes, you will get a series of 'threat-o-grams' designed to itimidate into paying up but they can do nothing without a county court judgement.

moneysavingmaniac

Ignore them really? Wont they take me to court?

I've never had a parking fine before you see.

bargepole

moneysavingmaniac wrote: »

Ignore them really? Wont they take me to court?

I've never had a parking fine before you see.

... And you haven't got one now. Private companies have no power to fine anybody, all you have is a speculative invoice.

They will threaten court and all sorts of dire consequences, but it's all hot air - just ignore them.

Pac3y

I've got a letter through today myself (Two infact) All i've done is written in the Part B of the representation section, stating i'm a full gym member and included my membership number. But i've not sent anything out yet, and with the advise on here i don't think i'll bother.

Not a chance in hell they're having any money from me! It's rather sad though as stated above the actual machine is usually offline or crashed in some way.

peter_the_piper

If you do decide to send do not forget to forget the stamp.

Coupon-mad

moneysavingmaniac wrote: »

Ignore them really? Wont they take me to court?

I've never had a parking fine before you see.

Wot bargepole and the others said. You still have never had a parking fine, this is a fake one in the hope you are stupid enough to pay.

You are now at the beginning of a mail scam, you (the registered keeper) will receive some scary letters (ooo-er!). But panic not, the letters are part of the scam so just ignore them like you would if you got a series of phishing emails telling you that you'd won the Nigerian Lottery and just had to supply your Bank details to collect your winnings...

You must sit down and read a few more important threads. You need to see the Watchdog paper aeroplane excerpt which is linked in a sticky (permanent info) thread near the top of the forum thread list:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...play.php?f=163

It's an absolute must-see for people who actually think a Private parking fake ticket is a real one. The Watchdog link (featuring an expert solicitor called Tim Cary, clutching a MET bogus 'ticket', no less!) is on the sticky thread near the top of that list called 'WELCOME, please read before posting'!!!!

Then look at the top sticky thread 'PPC letters, what to expect' and make sure that the registered keeper of the car is ready to play a fun game of snap with each matching letter as it arrives. The MET letter-chain is on there, take a look now to see what might come next.

Yes the scary letters do look sort of 'official' and will be on debt collector and maybe 'let's pretend we are a solicitor' headed notepaper. This is part of the scam, so nowt to worry about and there is NO DEBT anyway so you can see you are on safe ground.

You will not go to Court; that's so rare it's almost unheard of and MET have never, ever taken anyone to Court. The odd other PPC that does chance its arm once in a blue moon lose almost every time with a defended case. No-one will come knocking, no bailiff will call.

Nothing about ignoring this con will affect your credit rating, just keep ignoring. I am not sure I would bother signing in at the gym with your car reg - it's up to you - but next time just laugh if ever your car collects a piece of unwanted rubbish called a parking charge notice (a real PCN is a penalty charge notice).

HTH

phague

moneysavingmaniac wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I have just received a parking fine of up to £100 from MET parking services.

It relates to the gym I use in Sheffield (Pure Gym).
If you use the gym the parking is free.
Normally when you go into the gym you also sign your car in. And as it goes this one time I forgot to.

Saying that, the machine you sign your car in is sometimes down and the staff just say oh its broken it doesn't matter today so you get out of the habit sometimes.

If I can prove I went into the gym do I have a case to not pay it?

Thanks

I had one the other day, as I use the same gym.
I spoke to the Deputy Manager, to see if they log when the machine/touch screen is out of order, as I always log my Reg Number.

Have a polite word with him, as they want to keep members, and they may be able to squash it for you anyway, then you dont need to worry!

Tilt

phague wrote: »

I had one the other day, as I use the same gym.
I spoke to the Deputy Manager, to see if they log when the machine/touch screen is out of order, as I always log my Reg Number.

Have a polite word with him, as they want to keep members, and they may be able to squash it for you anyway, then you dont need to worry!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

wyutani

Im at Pure Gym Sheffield, got a parking charge notice today for parking last month - didn't use car park terminal in gym, either I forgot that day or it was broken (common occurrence). I'm absolutely livid as even though I know these are a scam, I bet lots of innocent people will pay the charge thinking it's an official parking fine. Pure Gym (well their parking company MET parking services) have gone down in my estimation. Aside from the fact the charges are a scam, if you ARE a gym member why should it matter if you register your car on the gym terminal or not....I parked for 2 hours (less than the allotted time).