Athena / LIDL parking ticket overdue, Scotland

otak

Hi all,


I am looking for advice and I have read the main topics but still feel unsure how to proceed.

At the moment I have a overdue payment from Athena and have received '' final demand letter ''.
I haven't answered unfortunately - which was a mistake but I was away working and forgot to answer them when found the letters waiting for me.

The main reason to have a ticket is that our LIDL till couple of weeks ago did not have anything like that and the shopping was in another town in a heavy rain. Nobody realised that we have to record our car number.

Of course in their letter says ; '' on the incident you were the driver of the vehicle'' and I know that is twisting what is known but on the picture could be seen partially the face of the driver. If that go to court could make it easier to establish who was the driver.

Obviously I have a choice to pay or to answer them / not answer them or to email the LIDL ( but I am not sure how much to trust on that ).


Any advice ?

Kind regards,

pogofish

Read carefully and follow the Scotland-specific advice in the Newbies Sticky at the top of this forum.

Not answering them is not a mistake in your case!

otak

Thanks for the quick reply,

I was worried ( which is normal probably of course and most likely that is the way these companies are making a lot of moneys ) because I don't know what to do after that and because the face could be seen on the camera snapshot - I don't see that mentioned anywhere before.
Maybe I have misunderstood that In Scotland now is as well advisable to answer to this letter and later to ignore them ?

By the way I should have paid if I felt that was justified - but I looked later and you cant see bigg letters or anything more clear in the heavy rain and nobody had a clue about these parkings .. duuh .

Have a nice day gentlemen and ladies ;-)

pogofish

You are overthinking this - PPCs rely on DVLA for cheap access to the info to hassle you with.

They do not have the investigative resources to identify people from photos!

waamo

Face on the camera snapshot. This is a parking company not MI5. I doubt they will snatch people off the street for an ID parade or that their face recognition software is linked to the DVLA and Passport office.

otak

You made me laugh ( at work , which is wort it ;-) .
Yes, probably I am overthinking it, but what I meant was that if in court could be seen some resemblance to people present there.
At least my darling think so.
Thank you for the reassurance .

otak

Ok, you probably mean that they would not go down the line of Court proceeding if they don't know for sure ?
I am a foreigner and thinking about court is not the most comfortable sensation - when you are abroad and not always know some obvious rules - it is probably slightly more scary. But I am slightly more angry at the way they are pushing people - for money.

interesting / or just practical ( money matters).

P.S. Does all this fuss make a negative impact on credit rating ?


Thanks for the useful help and advice !

Coupon-mad

P.S. Does all this fuss make a negative impact on credit rating ?

Nope. You would have to ignore court papers or lose in court then refuse to pay, to get a CCJ.

Why not do what everyone does re Lidl fake PCNs, and email a compliant to Mr Haertnagel?

otak

I would definitely do that - although don't think they would stop their contracts.

What annoys me that our local LIDL never had that practice for years and just recently have put down as well these cameras and restrictions.

Thanks !

waamo

A strong complaint often sees the ticket cancelled.