Smart Parking Ticket Fine - ASDA - Northern Ireland Advice please help.

conchur_2

Hello everyone i am newly registered user but i frequently visit the site as it is full of great advice.

i am wondering if someone can help me in what to do , back in February 2015 i was voluntarily fundraising for ''Action Cancer'' with a few other new people through a work scheme which involved me one day travelling to Bangor - Asda as ASDA where allowing us to Bag pack and Fund raise at the entrances to help us in raising money for Action Cancer, i parked in the ASDA Car park not Realising there was pay and display signs up ''maximum 2 hour stay'' as i have an Asda close to my own home with no pay and display, i was rushing this day and did not pay and display as i was genuinely unaware.

I came back to my car after fundraising to see i had a ticket on the car and the guys i was Fundraising with told me just to ignore it that it will be ok , The car is on my mothers name and i am a named driver , they keep sending letters to my mother about the fine saying to pay £80 then another letter £120 then another reducing it to £80 again if i pay in 14 days and now they have sent one say i have 14 days to pay £80.00 or face possible court action, will i get taken to court? this is causing me some anxiety as i am generally a worrier .

just to let you all know we raised # £16,000 between 6 of us in 3 months for action cancer. i suppose this story has one positive.

any advice is appreciated thank you.

System

From experience if you contact ASDA and explain they will sort Smart for you. If they decide not to, there is always the local paper you can call. They'd love this one.

But ASDA can usually see sense with these.

martmonk

Complain to landowner yes, but as long as Smart don't know who the driver is there's nothing they can do. No keeper liability in NI.
Read the sticky at the top of this forum for more.

atilla

If you look closely at the ticket pay machines you will see your slam dunk win for causing Not so Smart and Asda maximum embarrassment.
The labels and notices still refer to Town & City Parking.

At least they did 3 months ago when i was there.

So nothing to worry about.

Just found the proof.
Ticket machine towards the top end of the carpark.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96631049/WP_20150319_001.jpg

Iceweasel

Do not worry about this nonsense.

As you are in NI they can do NOTHING at all.

Neither not-so-Smart parking nor any real or imaginary pretend debt-collectors they may or may not involve.

These letters with their threats of impossible, unenforceable consequences will stop after a few months - you'll perhaps receive 5 or 6 of them.

Unless you or your mum are innocent or naieve enough to contact them - even to say you are not going to pay.

Contacting them in ANY way will serve only to show that you do not understand the difference of the law in NI (and Scotland) from the law in England and Wales.

In that case the letters and empty threats will continue for up to a year - but the consequences they falsely will suggest as possible will escalate to laughable proportions.

All designed to scare and pressure the unwary to needlessly part with their money.

Sit tight and do nothing - make sure your mum understands this and also does not respond.

SevenTowers

All excellent advice, and being from NI myself I can assure you 100% that the letters are all bluff and bluster designed to frighten you into handing your money over to them.

Post 7 in the following link shows you the letter chain used by UKPC, Smart's letter chain will be very similar.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5133531

Remember no PPC has ever taken anyone in N. Ireland to court, all you have to do is sit back, relax, and ignore, ignore, ignore.

Oh, and then ignore some more.....

atilla

With the evidence available i'd be escalating a complaint right up to the Company Secretary of Asda, along with the implied threat of serious adverse publicity if they didn''t get a grip of both their processes and those of not so smart.

ChrisGunn

Ok so I've been ignoring the Smart Parking letters and now I've received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd saying "the Supreme Court of the U.K has made a landmark court decision and if I don't pay £120 they'll recommend to the creditor that court action should be taken"
Is this for real or just scare tactics?

Coupon-mad

ChrisGunn wrote: »

Ok so I've been ignoring the Smart Parking letters and now I've received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd saying "the Supreme Court of the U.K has made a landmark court decision and if I don't pay £120 they'll recommend to the creditor that court action should be taken"
Is this for real or just scare tactics?

Scare tactics covered umpteen dozen times recently. Just search the forum for 'landmark Debt Recovery Plus'.

pogofish

ChrisGunn wrote: »

Ok so I've been ignoring the Smart Parking letters and now I've received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd saying "the Supreme Court of the U.K has made a landmark court decision and if I don't pay £120 they'll recommend to the creditor that court action should be taken"
Is this for real or just scare tactics?

What has this got to do with someone else's ticket in NI, from last year?

SevenTowers

You should have created a new thread, the rule is one thread per issue.


Advice hasn't changed, no PPC has ever attempted a case in NI, you are safe to ignore. Whilst the Supreme Court did make a ruling in a Parking Company's favour, it doesn't make it any more likely that Smart Parking will take a case.


So it's just more hot air, bluff and bluster designed to frighten you. If you need further advice start a new thread.