Matalan PArking Fine

martinbuffleo

My partner parked in Matalan Car Park where she paid the £1 parking ticket and had it refunded in store.

She then received a letter from Smart Parking saying that she hadn't paid her parking and that she now owes £155 pound. ANPR and photo evidence provided.

Like most people she didn't keep her parking ticket so we have little evidence that she paid.

She had only had the car for a few weeks so it is possible that she entered the wrong registration number when buying the ticket.

She contacted the company to appeal the fine, but was unaware of the POPLA process.

During her attempts to appeal with Smart Parking we moved house and the new occupants failed to forward the post on in time and we have now missed the window for POPLA.

We have now received letters from dept recovery agents, she has contacted them to say that she feels the fine is unfair. They told her to talk to Smart Parking, and Smart Parking say she needs to speak to the recovery agents.

Matalan wont step in but have provided a receipt showing a £1 'voucher' refund.

the latest letter is threating small claims court.

Is it too late to ask POPLA to step in if we say about moving house. Also forgot to mention that we also have a 1 month old.

If POPLA cant step in what are our odds in Small Claims?

Can we request that Smart Parking show a list of people who paid for parking in the 10min after we entered the car park, and compare that?

We paid for parking so there must be one parking ticket that doesn't match the ANPR?

If there was an error in entering the number plate when buying the ticket are we liable, regardless of the fact we have paid?

Redx

Smart are not claiming £155 , the DCA has added on their fee and its the DCA who are claiming £155 , so the letter did not come from smart, it came from DRP

you can IGNORE the DCA as detailed in post #4 of the NEWBIES sticky thread

NEVER , NEVER , NEVER contact a DCA , ESPECIALLY NOT BY PHONE , just IGNORE them

any hope of POPLA has long gone because if smart provided a popla code with their initial refusal it only lasted 28 days, plus if smart do not or wont issue a popla code you cannot go to popla

no code = no popla

SMART dont "do" court , although never say never

if it gets as far as an MCOL , deal with those legal questions at that point

what ifs are irrelevant at this time, plus only a judge can determine your answers, not a forum

nobody can determine your odds on winning a court case, only a fool would even try

yes those questions can be posed in your defence, yes you can ask them to produce their data for the court and you to see

having a 1 month old is not relevant , financial circumstances are not relevant in a legal dispute nor are they taken into account for a judgment

anpr systems and the computers logging the data have long been the subject of questions like yours, the answer SHOULD BE that you can only enter a registration captured by the anpr cameras, realitty is different and parking prankster has blogged about it several times

Coupon-mad

It's only Smart. Just search the forum for that word to see how tame they are.

There is a rumour they've lost the Matalan contract; people have seen their signs covered and removed.

martinbuffleo

My partner has just recieved a letter from SCS.

Can't find a way to attach the photos of the letter.

They are stating the fine is £170.

Failed to pay charges after serveral letters.

Smart are entitled to these sums under contract law.

14 days to make payment or they are instructed to start court proceedings.

If a CCJ is obtained bailiffs will be round.

Please note this letter is to be considered a letter before claim for purpose of the practice direction on pre-action conduct.

Can some one help me with the next step please?

Coupon-mad

Same as this one earlier...always read other threads first, nothing here is unique:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5670046

And everything is covered by the NEWBIES thread, in this case, you need to read post #2 of it.

If a CCJ is obtained bailiffs will be round.

Things don't work like that; they are misleading you.

beamerguy

martinbuffleo wrote: »

My partner has just recieved a letter from SCS.

Can't find a way to attach the photos of the letter.

They are stating the fine is £170.

Failed to pay charges after serveral letters.

Smart are entitled to these sums under contract law.

14 days to make payment or they are instructed to start court proceedings.

If a CCJ is obtained bailiffs will be round.

Please note this letter is to be considered a letter before claim for purpose of the practice direction on pre-action conduct.

Can some one help me with the next step please?

You are talking about SCS Law ???:rotfl::rotfl:

THE CLUE to get rid of this rubbish

You may not have retained the ticket but you did get
the £1 deducted from your bill.

So, you ask Matalan for a copy of your receipt for that day.
Your Matalan card will substantiate this

Once you have that information you inform SCS Law with
the proof from Matalan to cease scamming you immediately

Smart or as we say "not so smart" have always had a problem
with their flawed ANPR system

The answer is within your Matalan card

Once proven, you write to the CEO demanding an answer as to
why Matalan employ parking cowboys like Smart