Asda parking ticket - moved house!

Illi00

Hiya.
I've joined this site deliberately to get advice.

Today I went to my previous address to collect any post. In it was 3 letters saying I had a parking ticket from 10 jan 2014 for 'no valid display ticket'.. These letters started with a £40 fine, then £70, then £120. I got a 4th letter from Zenith Collections saying court action was being recommended.

The problem I have is... I don't have any receipts to prove I was shopping, I don't have the display ticket as it was from jan and were now in August. And as stupid as it sounds - I know this is no valid reason - with moving house I forgot about the initial fine on my car!!
I also moved house between getting the lovely yellow sticker on my windscreen and letter number 1, so all 28day reduction payments are long gone!

Where do I stand please?
I have a friend who is a policeman and his advise was to ignore it cos they're not really legal and it's 'all !!!!!!!!' - his words, not mine!

I didn't even get detentions at school so getting these letters is really quite scary for me :'(

I know I should have addressed it sooner, but I didn't and this is my situation now... Any advise would be amazingly appreciated!!!

Dee140157

Read the newbie thread and get to post 4. Still appeal. Smart may issue you a POPLA code. Also if a regular customer go and complain to Asda as they can still cancel. Don't worry about not having original receipt. (Did you pay by card, of so your statement will have a reference for Asda and the fact you ere a customer. It may be dated a day or two later.)

ezerscrooge

Were you the driver at the time? or was someone else driving (who happens not to have the same address as you)?

If so, you can reset the clock by identifying the driver. The driver will then get their own ticket and can start the whole appeal process from scratch.

If you were the driver and keeper, then you my have to take a chance on a late appeal.

The_Slithy_Tove

ezerscrooge wrote: »

If you were the driver and keeper, then you my have to take a chance on a late appeal.

And at least they will have your current address, even if they reject. That will mean that in the highly unlikely event that they tried taking you to court (assume it was Smart, who are not know to do court), you would know about it. What you want to avoid is having some PPC get a default judgement and CCJ against you because you never knew anything about it.

Illi00

It was me driving, no one else uses my car ever lol!
My policeman friend said to not acknowledge the letters but this doesn't sit well with me.
I rang my bank and they said there's an asda transaction on the day after but not on the same day, and it's not timed from the 10th.
I checked back through my planner and I vaguely remember nipping to asda and paying in cash cos I had some photos printed out for a friends birthday but don't have the receipt.

It is SMART yeah, I definitely don't want a CCJ, I hadn't even heard of them until today!

I will read up on POPLA, thank you and I will whinge at asda like mad! I'm there all the time! All this for a £1 display ticket is stupid!!

Dee140157

I would take a copy of the receipt with you for the day after, it is not uncommon for transactions to be processed the next say I believe, so it may not have registered on your bill. It certainly proves as will other transactions that you are a customer.

But complain in front of people and loudly! Don't let them take you to a back office or fob you off saying they don't own land, council do. They appoint Smart and can tell the to cancel, even this far down the line.

atilla

Just send the appeal. Really not worth going to the trouble of going to store and arguing. The appeal will sort it.

Dee140157

I disagree. Time and time again we say that complaining is the easiest way to get a PCN ticket sorted, especially when way beyond the appeal deadlines. And since this is clearly a local asda, it is not a major problem for the OP.

atilla

Dee140157 wrote: »

I disagree. Time and time again we say that complaining is the easiest way to get a PCN ticket sorted, especially when way beyond the appeal deadlines. And since this is clearly a local asda, it is not a major problem for the OP.

Fair enough. But i do several of these a week to not so smart.

5 minutes email. all sorted.

Umkomaas

Alternatively, you do nothing, but send your friend Plod around to Asda, get him to see the manager and read him the riot act. Get him to put his money where his mouth is.

If he won't do that for you (is he really your friend?), then go with Atilla, as there's real time experience there.

Illi00

Mr plod doesn't live locally to me :-/
What should I say in asda? I'm really terrible at sticking up for myself and my only defence is that the reminder letters didn't get posted to me, they went to my previous address, so I was unaware of them.
I can get bank statements showing asda on them easily enough though