Parking Eye, POPLA rejected, any other options?

nomadicmatt

Hi everyone. My apologies for posting but I can't find a similar story. Can anyone offer me any advice please?
First up, I am not denying I didn't buy a ticket when I should have, my appeal is on extenuating circumstances.
Background

• Worked full day in USA, then flew to London, 24 hours without sleep. Drove to Birmingham and parked Oxford services M40 exhausted.
• Fell asleep immediately, I've never even considered a ticket as I've never needed one, I limit stays to 30 minutes normally.
• Woke up 2 hours later, had to rush off immediately to get 3 year old from school, made it to meet her exactly as she came out.
• Subsequently charged for £100 from Parking Eye

Base of my claim

• Honest mistake.
• 1 month before I made same journey, after same long day and same flight, and fell asleep at my wheel and crashed my car, hence trying to do the right thing by pulling over this time.
• Had to rush off immediately to meet daughter from school, didn't have time to buy my ticket.

Hands up, I didn't buy a ticket, but £100 is excessive, it's an honest mistake. I thought about going to the media but I don't want the attention, I just can't afford this steep fine. Has anyone got any suggestions please? Do I have any case at all?

Thanks for your time.

Redx

its not excessive according to the Supreme Court last november

only a good defence and a judge can tell you if you have a chance in court

Parking Eye issue a lot of court papers so you either pay up or ignore everything except an LBC or an MCOL from Northampton for 6 years

until it goes to court and a judge rules, nobody can tell you what your "chances" are

I believe PE will issue court proceedings within 12 to 24 months , possibly less

sounds like you used the above to popla , bad mistake

post #3 of the NEWBIES sticky thread tells you what your popla appeal should have looked like

The_Deep

You bilked a £10-£12 fee. Send them a cheque for £20 in full and final settlement. If they return it uncashed and take you to court at least you will have acted responsibly. This differs from Beavis v PE several important ways, read what they are.

I think that they would struggle in court as judges do listen to mitigation, play every card in your hand. Also, check out the signs, and read the Excel v Martin Cutts transcript.

salmosalaris

How does "POPLA rejected" fit into the story ?

yotmon

It pains me to say this, but none of the above was the fault of PE.

About 7 years ago on a day out I pulled into an Aldi car park in Buxton. Went into the store and bought some fishing tackle (£25.00), then walked over the road to look at an open market. Came back well in time, but as the car park was empty and no attendants in sight I studied my map to decide which way to drive home, plus poured myself a coffee from my flask whilst examining what i had bought. Clock was ticking. Totally unaware that the car park was governed by anpr i received a ticket.

To cut a long story short, I paid it. I didn't have access to the internet at the time and wasn't aware of forums like this. But to be honest, I blamed myself for not reading the signs correctly.

Sometimes we have to take responsibility for our actions. However, if anyone can come up with a solid defence for your predicament then go for it. It's up to the ppc to prove your guilt, not for you to prove you innocence. But they are not going to fold by you trying to show mitigating circumstances such as falling asleep, you are going to have to do a lot better than that i'm afraid.

Coupon-mad

Oxford services M40

So what happened when you emailed the services Facility/Finance Manager and asked them to cancel the PCN? Easy to Google.

dazster

What C-M said.

But if they will not cancel The Deep's advice is good: pay them the parking fee plus a nominal amount on top for their trouble/costs. Even if they refuse it this will look very good should it ever come to a court claim, as it emphasises that this case is clearly distinguished from Beavis, that there need be no loss, and the £100 charge is an unenforceable penalty.

I would also argue that since the £12 fee is payable to the landowner, not ParkingEye, then the offer of parking came from the landowner hence there is no contract with PE, so if you send £20 to PE make it clear that you are sending it to them in their capacity as the landowner's agent, otherwise you might be deemed to have accepted a contract with PE.

nomadicmatt

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I wrote the Finance Manager at the Welcome Break services who has accepted my offer of £15 for the original parking charge and they will cancel the parking charge with Parking Eye! I really am grateful for your assistance, thank you.

dazster

Well done! So there's another manager who now knows that people will make mistakes and is now (hopefully) questioning the wisdom of penalising customers harshly for simple errors.

Coupon-mad

nomadicmatt wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I wrote the Finance Manager at the Welcome Break services who has accepted my offer of £15 for the original parking charge and they will cancel the parking charge with Parking Eye! I really am grateful for your assistance, thank you.

Great news! :T

Some Welcome Breaks will cancel these and some don't. I will add your successful complaint to this thread for others to see that it is always worth complaining assertively:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4766249

£15 in this situation is reasonable, as that is similar to the 'over two hours' tariff. You dodged a court case here.

Half_way

Well done, on three counts.
first and most importantly you took the correct decision to stop and rest, instead of carrying on which would have put yourslef, your daughter and all other motorists at risk.
Secondly Well done in talking to the manager
Thirdly well done in getting it cancelled.



I can understand why motorway service areas dont want their car parks being used as park and ride/car share bases, but MSA's perform a critical safety function, while the OP may have had their charge cancelled there is a risk that they, or others reading this may think again about stopping if tired.
The Two hour limit at MSA's is ridiculously short, and no way near a safe amount of time to recover. its long enough for ( and overpriced) bite to eat, use of the toilets etc.

However its not long enough if you doze off there may be signs stating that you can pay for extra time,. however these are the usual PPC garbage in tiny small text half way up a lampost.

A realistic time limit for MSAs should be around Six hours, this would be enough time to have a doze/nap and not enough time to use it as a work car park/car share/park and ride.

I would suggest that the OP contacts their MP to complain about the short time allowed and how this compromises safety, as well as a complaint to the motorway services, the DVLA and to parking company, although the complaint to the PPC would just be for completeness.

You could also try the media, something along the lines of "Motorway service parking fines putting lives at risk" ( yes I know its not a fine, but media land doesn't and stating Motorway Service area speculative invoies, or even parking charges doesn't carry enough weight)