Parking "Fines" & Lex Autolease

jestersbro

I'm a newby so please forgive me if this has been covered. I have recently been sent a £50 parking fee from Lex Autolease as they recieved (and automatically payed) one from a third party parking enforcement company. I was given no opportunity to challenge this before the payment was made. The evidence supplied only gave a business name and showed 2 images of my car when I was driving. These images show no geographical reference whatsoever. There is no image of the car parked. This charge has now been passed to me and my employer is absolutley going to take the monies away from me at the next payroll date. I have argued that the T&C in the driver handbook only refer to fines, notices and appeals to authorities but these have fallen on deaf ears. I am seriously considering going to the county court for a judgement against my employer. Does anyone have any advice about this and are there any good legal representatives that I can go to?

Thanks for your thoughts. :mad:

Half_way

Who issued the initial ticket?

jestersbro

The original charge was issued by CP Plus. The charge asked for £90 which would be reduced to £50 if paid immediately and it is labelled as a "charge notice". Not sure if that wording has any impact. Lex sent it on to me and my employer with the subject line of "Fixed Penalty" and refered to it as a "Fixed Penalty Notice" in the body of the text.

To be frank, I don't think the HR team have a clue as to the difference. I have tried to explain this to them very nicely, quite a lot.

peter_the_piper

Will not the Oct legislation actually help drivers in this position. As the RK (leaser) should name the driver there should be no reason for the leaser just to pay up and charge the drivers C/C (plus a fee of course)

jestersbro

Thanks for that. Worth looking at in future. I just came across a thread that included links to the BVLRA guidelines but they seem to be restricted. Anyone have any other links/pdfs that would aid?

bazster

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Pay/DG_175878

Your employer is not allowed to make a deduction from your pay or wages unless:
- it is required or allowed by law, for example National Insurance, income tax or student loan repayments
- you agree in writing to a deduction
- your contract of employment says they can
- it is a result of any statutory disciplinary proceedings
- there is a statutory payment due to a public authority
- you have not worked due to taking part in a strike or industrial action
- it is to recover an earlier overpayment of wages or expenses
- it is a result of a court order or Employment Tribunal decision

The only possibly-applicable scenarios from that list are (i) there is something in your contract of employment or (ii) you have signed something else agreeing to the deduction.

Unless the "driver handbook" constitutes an agreement between you and your employer, signed by you, it is entirely irrelevant. Furthermore, when it comes to deductions from your wages, any agreement between your employer and Lex is irrelevant, as is any agreement between you and Lex. The only relevant agreements are (i) your contract of employment and (ii) anything else you may have agreed in writing with your employer.

So, if your contract of employment doesn't give your employer the right to deduct these speculative invoices, and you've signed nothing else agreeing to such deductions, then your employer doesn't have a leg to stand on. If this is the case (and you must study your contract of employment and any other paperwork you may have signed e.g. when you got the lease car), and you are willing to fight your employer over this, then if I were you I would:

(i) print the page I have linked to above, and show it to your HR department
(ii) ask them to show you where in your contract of employment, or elsewhere, you have agreed in writing to such a deduction
(iii) if they can't, tell them that if they go ahead with the deduction you will see them at an Employment Tribunal (not the County Court).

Note that I am not advising you to go to battle with your employer. Only you can take that decision.

devonlad

Anyway you can get the money paid back and state you were the driver. The company that paid the fine could try and get payment back through their banking process
Afraid I not much use as my advice is normally ignore this sounds like a job for the big posters

The_Slithy_Tove

Lex are also as culpable (not necessarily legally) as your employer. They really should know better, as a major car leasing company. If they can't tell the difference between enforceable fines and PPC junk invoices, then someone should be sacked.

Or, put another way, Lex (and other lease companies) are part of the scam, part of the problem, as they also profit from their out-of-proportion "administration fees".

As well as HR, do you have a fleet manager, who may be educated around the legalities of these tickets more easily that HR?

jestersbro

The wording in the drivers handbook is

"5.4 Fixed penalties and fines
It is your responsibility to pay fines you receive promptly otherwise you may incur additional penalties and the possibility of further proceedings.

Fines subsequently received by Lex Autolease will incur a £15.00 administration charge. Externally hire companies and legacy contract vehicles may charge a higher administration fee of between £15.00 and £50.00. All administration fees are payable by you as the driver through salary deductions.

For further information please refer to the excess charges section in section 8.0 of this policy."


Section 8 refers only to "Parking or congestion Zone Fine" and this was not a "Fine". It also states that it is "the colleague’s responsibility to appeal, contest the fine with the authority concerned"

As far as I understand it a private parking company is not an authority. That privilege is reserved for bodies such as council, police forces, traffic enforcement bodies etc.

(Sorry about the mad capitalisations, it's copied verbatim)

bazster

As I already said, unless the driver's handbook forms part of a signed agreement between you and your employer it is entirely irrelevant. You would be better off spending your time studying your contract of employment and anything else you might've agreed in writing (with your employer, not Lex).

Whatdoiknow

bazster wrote: »

As I already said, unless the driver's handbook forms part of a signed agreement between you and your employer it is entirely irrelevant. You would be better off spending your time studying your contract of employment and anything else you might've agreed in writing (with your employer, not Lex).

If it is anything like our Company then he should have signed an acceptance of the driver handbook.

I have had this discussion several times on here and as much as I detest these charges our company will deduct them from the employee if already paid by the leasing company.

If I can get involved before such a charge is paid then I will tell the PPC to sod off as I did with Roxburghe some time ago.

But unfortunately I can only do so much, the leasing companies are pillocks when it comes to this but our hands are tied by the contract with them and unfortunately I don't get involved in the contract details.