Parking Eye Darlington v Disabled Owner

Thunderpants1817

In August 2016 my car was parked in a disabled bay in Darlington, when visiting a local restaurant. I am a severely disabled partially sighted Army veteran and the vehicle is a motability vehicle.

We believed that the bay was free of charge as the signs seemed to indicate this, before parking the driver stopped the vehicle to read the terms and conditions but it was unable to do so, as it was both raining and the wording was so small.

The vehicle was parked for two hours and no other vehicle was in the car park.

Upon receipt of the PCN £100 i appealed to the company explaining the above and my situation but this was regected.

I then ended up having a Popla appeal which was strangely rejected as further evidence to rebut their claims was not allowed and no reason was given.

The next letter was a LBCCC which I received was in March 2017, I again rebutted their claims and asked for numerous clarifications to be addressed, such as how many vehicles in total parked,when Anpr was installed, when last calibrated etc. I received no response from them.

On 16 May and 5 June 2017 I received a letter from EQUITA telling me that as I was the keeper of the vehicle I was responsible for the outstanding amount which was now £160. Unless I resolved this a recommendation would be to take me to court. They further quoted Beavis v parking eye.

It is my honest belief that I have done no wrong and am being targeted by these people as I am disabled and an easy touch.

I could do with some advise as it looks like I'm going to court, I have attached some photos showing my concerns in the hope that help can be obtained.

It seems I can't attach photos due to being a newbie sorry.

Quentin

They aren't picking on you because you are disabled. You fell into their trap and they processed you just like all their other victims irrespective of your health etc

Read up in the newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum on court procedure and preparing a defence.

If you do end up with a court claim come back with your defence for comments

Umkomaas

Having Equita involved is relatively good news for you. If ParkingEye are going to take people to court they do so immediately. I've never seen a PE case where they've gone through a process of (unsuccessful) debt collection and then moved into court phase.

We believe that where a debt collector is involved in a PE case, either PE are on shaky ground (maybe their signage isn't up to scratch on the particular site) or the landowner has specifically said that they are not prepared to allow PE to take their customers to court - or maybe other reasons.

So the advice is that where debt collectors are involved (whichever parking company is chasing) you ignore anything from them, they cannot do anything other than send letters. You just need to keep an eye out for any court papers that do come through from the PPC.

ParkingEye are part of the CAPITA group. Guess which group Equita are part of (check small print on their letter to you - or Google)?

While I can't give you an absolute guarantee, my sense is this isn't going much further. We will help if I'm proved wrong.

Fruitcake

I'm with Umkomaas on this one. The cases we have seen where Equita get involved are usually as said where there something is wrong with the PCN and parking lie don't want this revealed in court, so keep bullying the motorist instead.
One of the reasons in addition to those above mentioned by Umkomaas is if they don't know who the driver is, and the NTK does not meet the requirements of the POFA 2012 so liability cannot be transferred to the keeper.

If you never gave away the driver's identity, keep it that way.

Ignore debt collectors. Don't ignore real court papers fro the parking scammers.

You can post redacted images by uploading them to a web hosting site such as tinypic, or dropbox, or photobucket, then paste the image URLs here, but change http to hxxp. Someone here will change them back to a live link.

Thunderpants1817

Thank you for your comments, I have not revealed who the driver is and will let you know if they do pursue me to court.

Redx

a landholder complaint citing the EA2010 may also bear fruit

also warn them BOTH about counter action by you under the EA2010

Guys_Dad

You have to host your photos on tinypics or similar and give us a link.

Be aware that many private car parks have no free parking for disabled drivers and many disabled drivers tend to assume free parking as this is most common.

If this gets to court and they have charging for disabled drivers, then your main defence plank will be the notices, so we need to see them. Obviously there are the technical points in the Newbies thread and the actual make up of the current charge, but get these photos of the signs.

Thunderpants1817

Thanks for the advice, hope these photos get to you[IMG]hxxp://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4896048331[/IMG]

Coupon-mad

Black on a red background makes the 'no concessions for Blue Badge Holders' impossible to read at that height.

Breaches the BPA CoP - signs must be readable from a driver's seat without the disabled person having to get out of the car.

Guys_Dad

You might want to refer to this or any other link that covers Le Courier legibility table

https://www.coursehero.com/file/p1rf2et/23-Le-Courier-Color-Legibility-Chart-Order-of-Legibility-Print-Color-Background/

Black on red, as c-m says, is not a good combination.

Thunderpants1817

Thanks for that guys to be honest didn't even see the black on red when the car was parked as it was pouring with rain. Do you think the contract terms located at the bottom of the signs is poor, the driver really couldn't read them and only saw the sign for disabled parking bays.

Which could hardly be seen as they were painted over, i have significant mental health issues as a result of my 20 years service and feel that they have had a detrimental affect On my health.

I even told them that I was having reconstructive surgery on my leg, asking for some form of compassion on this occasion, but they refused.

As I type I'm still in plaster, makes me sick that I've been treated so appallingly.