Cheeky trap - NPS

TiguanDriver1

Hi everyone

I've looked over these threads before and they have proven helpful in the past but I've never posted. This time I feel I have to!

On entry to the car park there was a sign that said Pay & Display car park. There was an NPS car parking enforcement person in the car park ticketing vehicles. The driver parked in the space next to her van, got out of the car and bought a ticket for two hours before returning to the car, putting the ticket on the dashboard and heading off. The parking woman will have seen the driver go through all these motions.

On returning to the vehicle an hour and a half later the driver noticed a parking charge notice, issued only 4 minutes after the ticket to the car park was purchased. Turns out (after closer inspection of the small print on some of the signs) that the car was parked in a 'permit only bay'. These bays had yellow lines instead of white ones (which wasn't much of a clue!!) and this is the type of bay that both my car and the NPS employee's van had parked in.

The contravention given on the ticket says 'Not Clearly Displaying a Valid Permit' but later it says 'The vehicle was parked on private property in a manner where the driver agreed to pay a parking charge as displayed on the signage at the site' - a parking charge was paid for at the site, hence the ticket clearly displayed on the dashboard.

The NPS employee watched as my vehicle was parked there, and a ticket was bought to park in that spot - you'd have thought she could have said something to the driver if she saw that they were parking in the wrong place?!!

Also a ticket was bought from the machine in good faith thinking that was the right course of action. As you might imagine I am raging!! I feel like the company has deliberately set out to trap people in this way. Any advice please?

DoaM

On Sunday my car was parked in a small car park of around 20 spaces in Newcastle

On entry to the car park there was a sign that said Pay & Display car park and the driver noticed

etc. I suggest you edit your OP accordingly.

TiguanDriver1

Understood, thanks

TiguanDriver1

So... can anyone help? What should I do??

Umkomaas

You need to get this steered away from the leasing company, otherwise there's a real danger of them paying the PCN, charging your credit card and adding a juicy admin charge, with you staring down the nasty end of a £125+ bill.

Write to the leasing company and tell them that should they receive a NtK from NPS, under no circumstances should they pay it as you are now dealing with this directly with NPS.

You should appeal to NPS using the IPC appeal template from the NEWBIES FAQ sticky around day 18, as the keeper of the vehicle (yes you are, you're the day-to-day keeper, albeit not the registered keeper). NPS will reject your appeal and offer you the second stage appeal with the IAS. You have no chance of success with either, so the weight of forum opinion is to not bother with an IAS appeal.

Thereafter, it's a case of ignoring anything else that comes your way, including debt collector letters, but do not ignore any court papers (unlikely, but they do have 6 years to pursue this through the courts and you can't predict what might happen between now and 2023).

Unfortunately their claws are in you and they're on your back; you won't be able to shake them off unless you pay them or, importantly, you get the landowner (who engaged them in the first place) to intervene and have them cancel the ticket.

TiguanDriver1

Thanks Umkomaas, that's really helpful!

The_Deep

The law requires that, if she saw the event, under The Law iof Contract, she must attempt to mitigate her employer's losses by warning you of the financial consequences of parking where you did. If this ever got to court you could call her and ask some very awkward questions.

Read this

http://nebula.wsimg.com/e3da92cb966c72de63ec1f98605c2954?AccessKeyId=4CB8F2392A09CF228A46&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

ampersand

#
DoaM - would you also edit your post please, to avoid the same id outcome for op?

The_Deep

IMO, it does not matter whether the PPC knows who was driving or not, the important issue here is the failure of the PPC to mitigate their losses. Given a fair wind, that should hole them below the water line.

Quentin

The_Deep wrote: »

..... it does not matter whether the PPC knows who was driving or not, ....

The standard advice always given here is don't ignore/don't ring a ppc/NEVER REVEAL THE DRIVER'S ID etc

The_Deep

Yes I know. In my opinion it is wrong, especially in "own space" cases, machine failure cases, fluttering ticket cases and out of time for NTK cases.