Premier Parking win in court

James_N

The Prankster has today posted an account of a loss against Premier Parking in court, with a difficult-to-account-for judgement of costs as well.
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/premier-parking-win-in-court-cautionary.html

This despite a strong case in the Prankster's opinion.

Noting this as a cautionary tale, the Prankster urges caution and makes this a sound reason to see these claims off either before or at POPLA.

4consumerrights

Indeed this is an example of why parking charges should NOT be ignored any more and quashed by using the relevant appeal system open to motorists.

A good written defence is only half the battle as much depends on performance on the day in court and only highlights the differences that judges rule on at county court level.

Coupon-mad

Seems a bit of an odd one and for that money - worth an appeal perhaps? I know appealing costs a fee but the alternative is to pay that huge amount which appears to be a mistake, forced through by the barrister they used to intimidate her. If she didn't say who was driving, POFA 2012 only allows for the Parking Charge 'sum in the nature of a fee or charge' to be claimed from a keeper.

Ivor_Pecheque

good to see the balance

trubster

How about a whip-round for an appeal? Do you have details of the defendant Pranky?

I will put £25 in the pot if thats any help.

bargepole

trubster wrote: »

How about a whip-round for an appeal? Do you have details of the defendant Pranky?

I will put £25 in the pot if thats any help.

The defendant in question is this one here: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=85724

As you will see from the thread, she never really had a grasp on what was going on. I did send her a revised version of the defence to submit, after she had cobbled together a very poor effort herself from some out of date templates, but I got the impression that she never really understood any of it.

To launch an appeal, she would need to pay the £120 application fee, then a further £200+ for a transcript of the first hearing. She would also need a solicitor to represent her at the appeal hearing, probably another £300+, with no guarantee she would get any of that back.

There are some battles worth fighting, and some which are not. In my view, this one falls into the latter category.

trisontana

Ivor_Pecheque wrote: »

good to see the balance

As apposed to PE who only list their wins on their website. And even that list is six months out of date.

halibut2209

Yeah, reading through the thread bargepole linked to, it's really no surprise. I would like to know what the extra costs were for though

nigelbb

This case highlights all that is wrong with private parking enforcement & demonstrates that the PPC business is full of evil money-grabbing bullies.

This poor lady has been shafted by the Premier Park Ltd & shafted by the justice system. This is a person who is already up to her eyes in debt & merely parked outside her own back gate but not in a marked space. Apparently signs had gone up just a week before threatening parking charges for vehicles not in a designated space. I don't know the details of the case but suspect that she would have won if the defence was properly presented but it's outrageous that the court decided that she owes these bullies £600+ for such a heinous crime. Hiring a barrister to intimidate the defendant in the small claims court is an abuse of process.

A proper council parking ticket backed up with proper statute law wouldn't have had the same financial consequences.

nobbysn*ts

trubster wrote: »

How about a whip-round for an appeal? Do you have details of the defendant Pranky?

I will put £25 in the pot if thats any help.

She's not appealing, but you could always chip in the £25 towards the costs instead?

chili_pea

I appreciate everyone's kind words.
It has been a very stressful year since receiving the parking ticket so apologies for my ignorance at law. The defence and understanding was not what it should have been which is unusual.
However suffering a traumatic sexual attack a couple of months before the parking ticket was issued means there has been another court case ongoing that I'm sure you will understand is very time consuming. A knock on effect of an attack like that meant the household income reduced to 50% as the other half lost their job and 2 months of being off of work for the victim.
In response to why the costs were so heavy I have no idea. The original costs PP were claiming was £155. The added extras were the court fees, the witness fee £90, the transport fee £35... To be honest the upset and confusion at this point leaves the memory a bit blank but at no point in the case was there any unreasonable behaviour.
Again donations for an appeal are extremely kind but as people have already stated there's no point.