Doncaster Airport fine for stopping 30 seconds

mickW_2

I got a letter demanding £60 for stopping for a few seconds in a layby within Doncaster airport in the interest of safety when the mats moved affecting the foot pedals. I appealed to POPLA and guess what? appeal denied in favour of VCS so now they say I owe them £100. So if you can't stop in an emergency to avoid a possible accident what can you do? I have read all the stuff on the i/net about POPLA being a waste of time in that they favour the parking companies. Any advice on whether to pay this £100 or what can one do to avoid being another victim of these highway robbers? Wife is saying pay it as it is stressful having it pending and risking county court action and bailiffs.

bod1467

Can you post here your POPLA appeal wording? (If it's anything like your post here then these are mitigating circumstances and these NEVER win at POPLA).

POPLA is not a waste of time, as long as it is handled correctly. (Appeals aided by this forum are won 100% of the time).

Bear in mind - the POPLA outcome is binding only on the PPC, not on the motorist. So despite what the appeal result wording may say, you are under no compunction to pay and the PPC still has to chase you for it. To do this they need to raise a small claims court action, and THIS you can win with help. And even if you lose you WILL NOT get a CCJ. (Well, provided you paid the court judgement in time - a CCJ only gets applied if a court judgement is not paid, or not paid on time).

Read the NEWBIES sticky thread.

Coupon-mad

mickW wrote: »

I got a letter demanding £60 for stopping for a few seconds in a layby within Doncaster airport in the interest of safety when the mats moved affecting the foot pedals. I appealed to POPLA and guess what? appeal denied in favour of VCS so now they say I owe them £100. So if you can't stop in an emergency to avoid a possible accident what can you do? I have read all the stuff on the i/net about POPLA being a waste of time in that they favour the parking companies. Any advice on whether to pay this £100 or what can one do to avoid being another victim of these highway robbers? Wife is saying pay it as it is stressful having it pending and risking county court action and bailiffs.

This would be worth defending at a hearing seeing as there is so much information online about how to beat these charges at POPLA stage (which you missed). Similar arguments can be put into a small claim defence and you don't get bailiffs or even a CCJ from a small claim! If you lose, you simply pay the charge!

Can you tell us if you actually dropped yourself in it and said who was driving in your appeal? Oh dear (but don't pay it!).

bod1467

That's why I asked him to post his appeal wording. (Mick - redact any identifiable info, like your name and the POPLA reference and the PCN reference ... no, these can stay as it's a done-deal already).

Redx

just to point out that if POPLA were a waste of time, how come there are so many posted SUCCESSFUL APPEALS in the sticky thread at the top of this forum ?

if you had worded the popla appeal on the usual grounds then you would have won, but you seem to have chosen mitigation which they tell you on their own website IS NOT CONSIDERED

search this forum for ROBIN HOOD just to see how many have been appealed against successfully

but you could win if it went to court

mickW_2

Thanks for the replies. Yes I did write initially to VCS saying I stopped in the interests of safety. From what I have read if VCS do go to county court I may have to pay a further £36 court fee if I lose. Looks like it might be best to pay the £100 and put it down to experience. Wife doesn't want the hassle or stress of letters coming on a regular basis.

bod1467

We would advise otherwise, but ultimately it is your choice.

But PLEASE ... post up your appeal wording. There might be something there where you have inadvertently included a winning point but the POPLA assessor has missed it. In such cases you can appeal to the lead adjudicator.

Redx

its a shame you did not ask for help on here before you posted your popla appeal, as you have been a member here a long time and this could have been so easily won at popla and cost you nothing at all !

I would advise posting more info here just in case a "rescue package" is in order

Stroma

VCS doing court ? Yes they went there three times in the last year
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/179544/response/444525/attach/html/3/A%20FINAL%20REPLY%20TO%20LEWIS%2085865.doc.html

Now you have appealed on probably the wrong things, if it went to court you'd defend with our help on the right things. For example you'd ask how they have lost £100 for stopping for 30 seconds, more than £3 a second. They will not be able justify this loss!

Now it's your money as pointed out above, but you'd be frankly bloody stupid to pay this unlawful penalty, and trust me it is unlawful! No judge will allow this obscene amount of money to be a judgement providing you defend properly.

Which again comes to going to court, look at the foi request above, they issued thousands of fake tickets, and went to court 3 times, nothing suggests that has increased markedly since that request.

Coupon-mad

mickW wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Yes I did write initially to VCS saying I stopped in the interests of safety. From what I have read if VCS do go to county court I may have to pay a further £36 court fee if I lose. Looks like it might be best to pay the £100 and put it down to experience. Wife doesn't want the hassle or stress of letters coming on a regular basis.

To be frank, that seems a ridiculous stance - but your choice. You'll pay nothing if you simply defend it and win, if they ever even try a hearing in your case. There's no CCJ nor bailiff nor any effect on credit rating.

Why send a rich horsey PPC owner (Simon Renshaw-Smith, Google the grinning Excel and VCS owner!) your hard-earned £100 just because they 'might' try a small claim which you think you 'might' lose and then have to pay a little more...

...then again you could pay nothing and simply be ready to defend it if they try a hearing. It is a crying shame you didn't simply use one of our winning POPLA appeals. If you can trust the forum here to help if you need a defence then we are keen to help (but TBH court is more of a lottery. POPLA was the easiest to win).

mickW_2

I agree Coupon mad. Will sit and wait for the next step taken by VCS. If it goes to county court I will go and tell the judge the story and see what he decides. If I lose is that £100 plus costs?

Coupon-mad wrote: »

To be frank, that seems a ridiculous stance - but your choice. You'll pay nothing if you simply defend it and win, if they ever even try a hearing in your case. There's no CCJ nor bailiff nor any effect on credit rating.

Why send a rich horsey PPC owner (Simon Renshaw-Smith, Google the grinning Excel and VCS owner!) your hard-earned £100 just because they 'might' try a small claim which you think you 'might' lose and then have to pay a little more...

...then again you could pay nothing and simply be ready to defend it if they try a hearing. It is a crying shame you didn't simply use one of our winning POPLA appeals. If you can trust the forum here to help if you need a defence then we are keen to help (but TBH court is more of a lottery. POPLA was the easiest to win).