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Entered wrong registration but after appeal parking eye cancel charge
robathandr
Posts: 7 Forumite
In June 2017 I used a Parking Eye car park and because I only entered the last 3 letters of my registration instead of my full registration this was deemed enough for Parking Eye to issue me with a £100 PCN ( I cannot put a link to my original case but if you search using my username you will find the original story). My initial appeals to Parking Eye and POPLA were naively done in the manner of 'look here is my ticket , I was not outside the time limit and I have paid ' and were both rejected so when I received the 'Letter before County Court Claim' I realised that I had to put together a defence using the information from this site and from Parking Prankster. I also contacted my local MP who was very supportive. On the back of my defence and a letter from my MP today I received an e-mail from Parking Eye saying that ' as a gesture of goodwill' ( !! ) the parking charge has been cancelled. Thanks for all who contribute to this site and to Parking Prankster.
The defence I wrote to Parking Eye is below - if it is of any interest to anyone to use any of it. I'm not sure which bits worked but something must have done the trick, maybe it was the letter from the MP.
F.A.O
Parking Eye Legal Department
This is a formal response to your 'Letter before County Court Claim' received in September 2017
I am the driver and I contend that I am not liable for the parking charge on the grounds listed below. If this operator remains silent on any appeal point then it is deemed accepted.
1) Unreadable 'Letter before County Court Claim'
The letter you have sent to me is unreadable in large parts of the 'further information' section ( the back of the letter ). This letter has been signed by the Parking Eye Legal Department with no due diligence and no scrutiny of details. I believe the term for such conduct is ‘robo-claims’, which is against the public interest, demonstrates a disregard for the dignity of the court and is unfair and disrespectful on unrepresented consumers such as myself.
2) Breach of the BPA Code of Practice Principles
Under section 21 of the CoP, AOS members are only allowed to use ANPR if they:
(a) Use it to enforce parking in a reasonable, consistent and transparent manner.
(b) Have clear signs which tell drivers that the operator is using this technology and what the data captured by ANPR cameras will be used for.
21 Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) General principles
21.1 ''You may use ANPR camera technology to manage, control and enforce parking in private car parks, as long as you do this in a reasonable, consistent and transparent manner. Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that you are using this technology and what you will use the data captured by ANPR cameras for.''
The facts are that a ticket was bought, sent as proof and it was clear early on, that the driver had paid in good faith but had simply keyed in the wrong registration number. This is not mitigation, this is a fact that I submit cannot give rise to a PCN because it is not 'transparent' in the terms on signs/the P&D machine, that a correct VRN is an 'obligation' which runs such a risk and will be compared to the ANPR data for the purpose of imposing a charge.
The fact is, a BPA AOS operator is required to have transparent, fair and professional procedures including manual checks to identify such minor infringements. I require that the operator provides the Court with a copy of their policy and proof that those checks were made in this instance. Further, I require proof that ''wrong VRN' is in fact incorporated into the contract from the landowner as a penalty-generating 'contravention' since I find it highly unlikely that the retailer/landowner allows this unfair fining of paying customers.
If it is not in the contract it is not a contravention that can give rise to a penalty.
In your rejection letter, Parking Eye have failed to explain what manual checks were made or why they consider that enforcement is appropriate, nor whether the contract even allows a charge for 'wrong VRN'. Nor do they show in what terms it is made clear to the payee standing at the machine, that when making payment they have an obligation to input a correct vehicle VRN and run the risk of a punitive so-called 'parking charge' (unfairly set as a fixed sum at the same level as a non-payer) for that action alone.
This is an inappropriate parking charge which should have been cancelled on appeal. I remind Parking Eye that operation and enforcement is not just about issuing PCNs and collecting money from hapless victims, regardless of any legitimate interest, reasonableness or appropriateness. In fact the BPA CoP mentions in the Introduction 'minimum standards' (suggesting they are set low) as well as the importance of 'acting in a professional, reasonable and diligent way' in issuing 'appropriate' parking charges:
2.6 By creating the Code the parking industry has set out the minimum standards by which you will be judged by anyone coming into professional contact with you. Members of the public should be able to expect that you will keep to the law, and act in a professional, reasonable and diligent way.
2.9 The Code and its appendices cover the operation of parking on private, unregulated land. This includes:
• designing and using signs
• using ANPR and associated systems
• appropriate parking charges.
And in the ANPR section:
21.2 Quality checks: before you issue a parking charge notice you must carry out a manual quality check of the ANPR images to reduce errors and make sure that it is appropriate to take action.
To any right-minded person's viewing, refusing an appeal from a genuine parking customer who did pay and display is neither 'professional and reasonable' nor 'diligent'. Their own ANPR records show that there was no vehicle on site with the VRN I accidentally keyed in and as evidence, I was able to produce the ticket as proof that I paid but made an inadvertent error with the VRN, thereby showing that THIS ticket did relate to THIS vehicle and no other in the car park.
I submit that it was clear that it was not 'appropriate to take action' so the PCN should have been cancelled. I submit that to pursue a genuine customer who paid & displayed is contrary to the wishes of the landowners and this PCN is unauthorised. As such, the parking charge cannot be considered 'properly given' at the point of inappropriately refusing my appeal.
3) No evidence of Landowner Authority - the operator is put to strict proof of full compliance with the BPA Code of Practice
As this operator does not have proprietary interest in the land then I require that they produce an unredacted copy of the contract with the landowner to evidence the definition of the services provided. This includes a list of grace periods, charges and all restrictions authorised where a parking charge can arise, as I do not believe they are authorised by the landowner to charge a paying customer for a mere VRN error.
The contract and any 'Manual' setting out details including restrictions, charges and exemptions - such as any site occupier's 'right of veto' charge cancellation rights - is key evidence to define what this operator is authorised to do and any circumstances where the landowner/firms on site in fact have a right to cancellation of a charge.
It cannot be assumed, just because an agent is contracted to merely put some signs up and issue Parking Charge Notices, that the agent is also authorised to make contracts with all or any category of visiting drivers and/or to enforce the charge in court in their own name (legal action regarding land use disputes generally being a matter for a landowner only).
Paragraph 7 of the BPA CoP defines the mandatory requirements and I put this operator to strict proof of full compliance:
7.2 If the operator wishes to take legal action on any outstanding parking charges, they must ensure that they have the written authority of the landowner (or their appointed agent) prior to legal action being taken.
7.3 The written authorisation must also set out:
a the definition of the land on which you may operate, so that the boundaries of the land can be clearly defined
b any conditions or restrictions on parking control and enforcement operations, including any restrictions on hours of operation
c any conditions or restrictions on the types of vehicles that may, or may not, be subject to parking control and enforcement
d who has the responsibility for putting up and maintaining signs
e the definition of the services provided by each party to the agreement.
4) The signs do not state what the ANPR system data will be used for.
The BPA CoP contains the following in paragraph 21:
''Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that you are using this technology and what you will use the data captured by ANPR cameras for.''
Parking Eye fail to tell drivers that the ANPR data will be compared to any VRNs input into the P&D machine and will then be used to issue 'parking charges' for any case where there is a VRN omission or error. If I had known this vital fact, I would have thought twice before inputting the VRN in error. As I did NOT know this, I cannot be deemed bound by the terms.
The ticket machines should be linked to the cameras and only allow correct details, or offer the nearest match and ask if it is the correct VRM before accepting the money
5) The 'ParkingEye v Beavis' case exposes this charge as unconscionable, with no overriding 'legitimate interest' to save it from offending against the penalty rule.
The Supreme Court made it perfectly clear that the judgment was not a silver bullet which justifies all parking charges. Indeed, cases which are not about a free parking licence but involve a simple financial transaction (e.g. paying a tariff and putting in a VRN) were said at the Court of Appeal stage to be likely to fall foul of Lord Dunedin's four tests for an unenforceable penalty.
Parking Eye should be well aware that the circumstances of the Beavis case were entirely different. In this case, we have an authorised user using the car park appropriately where there has been no loss to the owner and no abuse of a parking space, nor any overstay.
While the courts might hold that a large charge might be appropriate in the case of a 'free stay' car park, essentially as a deterrent to overstaying, there is nothing in the case to suggest that a reasonable person would accept that a £100 penalty is a conscionable amount to be charged for the simple problem of a VRN error which was explained and accompanied in good faith at appeal stage, by proof of pay & display.
In this case the vehicle would have been fully entitled to park as it did had the VRN been correctly keyed in (provided that obligation had been clearly brought to the motorist's attention). The justification and 'legitimate interest' that was held to rescue the 'ParkingEye v Beavis' charge is irrelevant and conspicuously absent. The Operator cannot argue that a 'legitimate interest' exists to punish customers for accidentally inputting a wrong VRN on a single occasion, yet using the car park for exactly the purpose intended and for no more than the paid-for time.
The Beavis case is not comparable and does not supersede any considerations of the specific facts in this case. It is certainly likely that the courts would say it is undoubtedly 'unconscionable' to penalise a customer who has proved they paid and displayed, at the same level as (for example) a trespasser, who parked all day across two bays without paying any tariff.
This charge issued to me as a paying driver is clearly capable of being held by the courts as an unenforceable penalty. This view is supported by the judgment of the Supreme Court, which did not disagree with the earlier judgment from the Court of Appeal in 'Parking Eye v Beavis' which held:
"44. All the previous cases shown to us have concerned contracts of a financial or at least an economic nature, where the transaction between the contracting parties can be assessed in monetary terms, as can the effects of a breach of the contract by one party or the other...
45. The contract in the present case is entirely different. There is no economic transaction between the car park operator and the driver who uses the car park...
47. When the court is considering an ordinary financial or commercial contract, then it is understandable that the law, which lays down its own rules as to the compensation due from a contract breaker [...] should prohibit terms which require the payment of compensation going far beyond that which the law allows in the absence of any contract provision governing this outcome. The classic and simple case is that referred to by Tindal CJ in Kemble v Farren (1829) Bing. 141 at 148:
“But that a very large sum should become immediately payable, in consequence of the non-payment of a very small sum, and that the former should not be considered a penalty, appears to be a contradiction in terms, the case being precisely that in which courts of equity have always relieved, and against which courts of law have, in modern times, endeavoured to relieve, by directing juries to assess the real damages sustained by the breach of the agreement.”
This judgment makes clear that the Court of Appeal (and by definition, the Supreme Court which agreed) would also consider the charge in this case to offend against the penalty rule which all Judges agreed WAS 'engaged' by a contract attempting to enforce a parking charge. And at the Supreme Court it was held at 14: ''…where a contract contains an obligation on one party to perform an act, and also provides that, if he does not perform it, he will pay the other party a specified sum of money, the obligation to pay the specified sum is a secondary obligation which is capable of being a penalty;’ ''
At 22, the Supreme Court explored Lord Dunedin’s speech in Dunlop and separated complex cases (Beavis) from ordinary/standard contracts with a transaction and tariff paid at a machine:
''Lord Dunedin's...four tests are a useful tool for deciding whether these expressions can properly be applied to simple damages clauses in standard contracts. But they are not easily applied to more complex cases.''
This is NOT a 'more complex' case by any stretch of the imagination.
The purported contract with the motorist is an ordinary 'financial contract' where the loss that Parking Eye thought had arisen (non-payment of a tariff) is easily calculable. Without intellectual dishonesty, it cannot be argued that there is a commercially or socially justifiable deterrent value in this charge, especially as soon as Parking Eye knew that in fact, I paid and displayed.
Any putative contract needs to be assessed on its own merits as regards what would be deemed 'out of all proportion' to the tariff paid and 'unconscionable' given the circumstances. Consumer law always applies and no contract “falls outside” The Consumer Rights Act 2015; the fundamental question is always whether the terms are fair.
In this case the specific question is whether a reasonable person would, when parking in a place where they had paid the correct tariff for the privilege, also accept a further unknown liability in the case of a VRN error (that they were not informed was vital nor ran the risk of a huge fine). I would suggest that a court would not accept that £100 was a reasonable amount given these specific circumstances.
Although the charge was different, the Beavis case was 'entirely different' and does not save the charge in this case, from being held to be unconscionable. This is an unenforceable penalty and cannot be upheld as properly given.
6) Reference the ICO Code of Conduct for surveillance.
Some interesting points arise from use of Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) - see section 7.1. and in particular this:
“
When storing the information and cross referencing it with other
databases to identify individuals, you will need to ensure that these
databases are kept up-to-date and accurate and are of sufficient quality
to prevent mismatches
”
So if the camera takes personal data (registration) and stores it to then cross reference with the registrations inputted, I would argue that
(i) an accurate, quality system would be able to marry up the 3 letters that were inputted?
(ii) that to require more than 3 letters was, in any event, to process more personal data than reasonably required to check for payment
As there were very few cars in this small car park at the same time as the parking event I find it highly unlikely that there were multiple vehicles with the same 3 last letters.
It is also interesting that in a previous case where Parking Eye were asked for a list of all cars that had entered a car park between a certain time on a certain day the list of vehicles that they provided as evidence contained only the last 3 letters of all registrations.
See Appendix 2 which is taken from one of the numerous parking examples concerning Parking Eye that are posted on the Internet.
7) Not Fit for Purpose Invalid Ticket issued against rules of Consumer Rights Act 2015
The reason given by Parking Eye and POPLA for my penalty is that the ticket I was issued with from Parking Eye was an invalid ticket. This ticket was bought and paid for in good faith. According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 any goods purchased should be 'Fit for Purpose'. The ticket that was issued to me was not 'fit for purpose'. Parking Eye took my money to issue an invalid ticket and now want to charge me a penalty of £100 for having an invalid ticket. The invalid ticket was issued due to the ticket machine allowing the transaction to complete when I had entered an invalid Vehicle Registration Number. The ticket machine should not have issued the ticket as all British Number plates contain both letters and numbers and I only entered letters. The ticket machines should be linked to the cameras and only allow correct details, or offer the nearest match and ask if it is the correct VRM before accepting the money
8) Example of previous case Parking Eye v Heggie
Example of previous case taken from many previous cases listed on Internet
New transcript available. ParkingEye v Heggie
3JD04791 ParkingEye Ltd v Heggie (Barnsley, 13/12/2013). Deputy District Judge Obhi ruled that the amount charged by ParkingEye was not a genuine pre-estimate of loss.
Report
In this case Mr Heggie entered the wrong registration number for his vehicle. ParkingEye were able to trace this and confirm that he had paid. However, because they had started court proceedings they refused to drop the claim.
ParkingEye argued that their charge of £100 was a genuine pre-estimate of loss because the whole running costs of the car park needed to be considered.
Judge Obhi ruled that there was actually zero loss incurred.
ParkingEye then tried to argue there was an overstay of four minutes.
Judge Obhi dismissed the claim.
Although ParkingEye claim this was all the defendants fault for not contacting them, it is worth noting that it is their own systems which cause the problem. Systems from other organisations do not allow entry of numbers where a vehicle with that registration was not present.
It is also true that ParkingEye will have had an entry on their system that charges were paid for a vehicle which was not present, and so could reasonable be said to be aware that the problem was likely to have been caused by an incorrect registration.
I expect to hear from you within 14 days to confirm that this charge is now cancelled.
Yours faithfully
APPENDIX 2
====================================
Sunday, 30 October 2016
ParkingEye ANPR flaw at M40 Oxford Services
ParkingEye have yet again failed to cancel a parking charge wrongly issued by their flawed ANPR.
In this case the vehicle keeper (Stan) visited a friend for her 50th birthday party in Oxford, travelling in convoy with another vehicle. They stopped at the M40 Oxford Services between 13.55 and 14.10 for 15 minutes. On the way back, they popped in to fill up with petrol, stopping from around 18:35 to 18:45.
Some days later Stan received a parking charge from ParkingEye accusing him of staying in the car park for 4 hours and 52 minutes.
Stan appealed, explaining that he visited the car park twice on his way to and from a party.
ParkingEye requested proof.
Stan sent them 3 witness statements confirming he was at the party.
ParkingEye ignored this, and sent a letter asking Stan who the driver was.
Stan sent another letter, telling them to read his previous two letters and witness statements
ParkingEye told Stan he had reached the end of their internal appeal process and gave him a POPLA code
Stan appealed to POPLA, including as evidence the witness statements and also a photo he took at the party.
ParkingEye submitted a 93 page evidence pack, including 40 pages listing the last 3 digits of all the vehicles that had entered and exited the services that day.
The registration details of Stan's friend's car was not listed amongst all these numbers, despite the fact that he, too, had also visited the service station twice.
Stan sent an email to POPLA pointing this out, along with a signed statement from his friend including his registration number.
POPLA upheld the appeal
The defence I wrote to Parking Eye is below - if it is of any interest to anyone to use any of it. I'm not sure which bits worked but something must have done the trick, maybe it was the letter from the MP.
F.A.O
Parking Eye Legal Department
This is a formal response to your 'Letter before County Court Claim' received in September 2017
I am the driver and I contend that I am not liable for the parking charge on the grounds listed below. If this operator remains silent on any appeal point then it is deemed accepted.
1) Unreadable 'Letter before County Court Claim'
The letter you have sent to me is unreadable in large parts of the 'further information' section ( the back of the letter ). This letter has been signed by the Parking Eye Legal Department with no due diligence and no scrutiny of details. I believe the term for such conduct is ‘robo-claims’, which is against the public interest, demonstrates a disregard for the dignity of the court and is unfair and disrespectful on unrepresented consumers such as myself.
2) Breach of the BPA Code of Practice Principles
Under section 21 of the CoP, AOS members are only allowed to use ANPR if they:
(a) Use it to enforce parking in a reasonable, consistent and transparent manner.
(b) Have clear signs which tell drivers that the operator is using this technology and what the data captured by ANPR cameras will be used for.
21 Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) General principles
21.1 ''You may use ANPR camera technology to manage, control and enforce parking in private car parks, as long as you do this in a reasonable, consistent and transparent manner. Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that you are using this technology and what you will use the data captured by ANPR cameras for.''
The facts are that a ticket was bought, sent as proof and it was clear early on, that the driver had paid in good faith but had simply keyed in the wrong registration number. This is not mitigation, this is a fact that I submit cannot give rise to a PCN because it is not 'transparent' in the terms on signs/the P&D machine, that a correct VRN is an 'obligation' which runs such a risk and will be compared to the ANPR data for the purpose of imposing a charge.
The fact is, a BPA AOS operator is required to have transparent, fair and professional procedures including manual checks to identify such minor infringements. I require that the operator provides the Court with a copy of their policy and proof that those checks were made in this instance. Further, I require proof that ''wrong VRN' is in fact incorporated into the contract from the landowner as a penalty-generating 'contravention' since I find it highly unlikely that the retailer/landowner allows this unfair fining of paying customers.
If it is not in the contract it is not a contravention that can give rise to a penalty.
In your rejection letter, Parking Eye have failed to explain what manual checks were made or why they consider that enforcement is appropriate, nor whether the contract even allows a charge for 'wrong VRN'. Nor do they show in what terms it is made clear to the payee standing at the machine, that when making payment they have an obligation to input a correct vehicle VRN and run the risk of a punitive so-called 'parking charge' (unfairly set as a fixed sum at the same level as a non-payer) for that action alone.
This is an inappropriate parking charge which should have been cancelled on appeal. I remind Parking Eye that operation and enforcement is not just about issuing PCNs and collecting money from hapless victims, regardless of any legitimate interest, reasonableness or appropriateness. In fact the BPA CoP mentions in the Introduction 'minimum standards' (suggesting they are set low) as well as the importance of 'acting in a professional, reasonable and diligent way' in issuing 'appropriate' parking charges:
2.6 By creating the Code the parking industry has set out the minimum standards by which you will be judged by anyone coming into professional contact with you. Members of the public should be able to expect that you will keep to the law, and act in a professional, reasonable and diligent way.
2.9 The Code and its appendices cover the operation of parking on private, unregulated land. This includes:
• designing and using signs
• using ANPR and associated systems
• appropriate parking charges.
And in the ANPR section:
21.2 Quality checks: before you issue a parking charge notice you must carry out a manual quality check of the ANPR images to reduce errors and make sure that it is appropriate to take action.
To any right-minded person's viewing, refusing an appeal from a genuine parking customer who did pay and display is neither 'professional and reasonable' nor 'diligent'. Their own ANPR records show that there was no vehicle on site with the VRN I accidentally keyed in and as evidence, I was able to produce the ticket as proof that I paid but made an inadvertent error with the VRN, thereby showing that THIS ticket did relate to THIS vehicle and no other in the car park.
I submit that it was clear that it was not 'appropriate to take action' so the PCN should have been cancelled. I submit that to pursue a genuine customer who paid & displayed is contrary to the wishes of the landowners and this PCN is unauthorised. As such, the parking charge cannot be considered 'properly given' at the point of inappropriately refusing my appeal.
3) No evidence of Landowner Authority - the operator is put to strict proof of full compliance with the BPA Code of Practice
As this operator does not have proprietary interest in the land then I require that they produce an unredacted copy of the contract with the landowner to evidence the definition of the services provided. This includes a list of grace periods, charges and all restrictions authorised where a parking charge can arise, as I do not believe they are authorised by the landowner to charge a paying customer for a mere VRN error.
The contract and any 'Manual' setting out details including restrictions, charges and exemptions - such as any site occupier's 'right of veto' charge cancellation rights - is key evidence to define what this operator is authorised to do and any circumstances where the landowner/firms on site in fact have a right to cancellation of a charge.
It cannot be assumed, just because an agent is contracted to merely put some signs up and issue Parking Charge Notices, that the agent is also authorised to make contracts with all or any category of visiting drivers and/or to enforce the charge in court in their own name (legal action regarding land use disputes generally being a matter for a landowner only).
Paragraph 7 of the BPA CoP defines the mandatory requirements and I put this operator to strict proof of full compliance:
7.2 If the operator wishes to take legal action on any outstanding parking charges, they must ensure that they have the written authority of the landowner (or their appointed agent) prior to legal action being taken.
7.3 The written authorisation must also set out:
a the definition of the land on which you may operate, so that the boundaries of the land can be clearly defined
b any conditions or restrictions on parking control and enforcement operations, including any restrictions on hours of operation
c any conditions or restrictions on the types of vehicles that may, or may not, be subject to parking control and enforcement
d who has the responsibility for putting up and maintaining signs
e the definition of the services provided by each party to the agreement.
4) The signs do not state what the ANPR system data will be used for.
The BPA CoP contains the following in paragraph 21:
''Your signs at the car park must tell drivers that you are using this technology and what you will use the data captured by ANPR cameras for.''
Parking Eye fail to tell drivers that the ANPR data will be compared to any VRNs input into the P&D machine and will then be used to issue 'parking charges' for any case where there is a VRN omission or error. If I had known this vital fact, I would have thought twice before inputting the VRN in error. As I did NOT know this, I cannot be deemed bound by the terms.
The ticket machines should be linked to the cameras and only allow correct details, or offer the nearest match and ask if it is the correct VRM before accepting the money
5) The 'ParkingEye v Beavis' case exposes this charge as unconscionable, with no overriding 'legitimate interest' to save it from offending against the penalty rule.
The Supreme Court made it perfectly clear that the judgment was not a silver bullet which justifies all parking charges. Indeed, cases which are not about a free parking licence but involve a simple financial transaction (e.g. paying a tariff and putting in a VRN) were said at the Court of Appeal stage to be likely to fall foul of Lord Dunedin's four tests for an unenforceable penalty.
Parking Eye should be well aware that the circumstances of the Beavis case were entirely different. In this case, we have an authorised user using the car park appropriately where there has been no loss to the owner and no abuse of a parking space, nor any overstay.
While the courts might hold that a large charge might be appropriate in the case of a 'free stay' car park, essentially as a deterrent to overstaying, there is nothing in the case to suggest that a reasonable person would accept that a £100 penalty is a conscionable amount to be charged for the simple problem of a VRN error which was explained and accompanied in good faith at appeal stage, by proof of pay & display.
In this case the vehicle would have been fully entitled to park as it did had the VRN been correctly keyed in (provided that obligation had been clearly brought to the motorist's attention). The justification and 'legitimate interest' that was held to rescue the 'ParkingEye v Beavis' charge is irrelevant and conspicuously absent. The Operator cannot argue that a 'legitimate interest' exists to punish customers for accidentally inputting a wrong VRN on a single occasion, yet using the car park for exactly the purpose intended and for no more than the paid-for time.
The Beavis case is not comparable and does not supersede any considerations of the specific facts in this case. It is certainly likely that the courts would say it is undoubtedly 'unconscionable' to penalise a customer who has proved they paid and displayed, at the same level as (for example) a trespasser, who parked all day across two bays without paying any tariff.
This charge issued to me as a paying driver is clearly capable of being held by the courts as an unenforceable penalty. This view is supported by the judgment of the Supreme Court, which did not disagree with the earlier judgment from the Court of Appeal in 'Parking Eye v Beavis' which held:
"44. All the previous cases shown to us have concerned contracts of a financial or at least an economic nature, where the transaction between the contracting parties can be assessed in monetary terms, as can the effects of a breach of the contract by one party or the other...
45. The contract in the present case is entirely different. There is no economic transaction between the car park operator and the driver who uses the car park...
47. When the court is considering an ordinary financial or commercial contract, then it is understandable that the law, which lays down its own rules as to the compensation due from a contract breaker [...] should prohibit terms which require the payment of compensation going far beyond that which the law allows in the absence of any contract provision governing this outcome. The classic and simple case is that referred to by Tindal CJ in Kemble v Farren (1829) Bing. 141 at 148:
“But that a very large sum should become immediately payable, in consequence of the non-payment of a very small sum, and that the former should not be considered a penalty, appears to be a contradiction in terms, the case being precisely that in which courts of equity have always relieved, and against which courts of law have, in modern times, endeavoured to relieve, by directing juries to assess the real damages sustained by the breach of the agreement.”
This judgment makes clear that the Court of Appeal (and by definition, the Supreme Court which agreed) would also consider the charge in this case to offend against the penalty rule which all Judges agreed WAS 'engaged' by a contract attempting to enforce a parking charge. And at the Supreme Court it was held at 14: ''…where a contract contains an obligation on one party to perform an act, and also provides that, if he does not perform it, he will pay the other party a specified sum of money, the obligation to pay the specified sum is a secondary obligation which is capable of being a penalty;’ ''
At 22, the Supreme Court explored Lord Dunedin’s speech in Dunlop and separated complex cases (Beavis) from ordinary/standard contracts with a transaction and tariff paid at a machine:
''Lord Dunedin's...four tests are a useful tool for deciding whether these expressions can properly be applied to simple damages clauses in standard contracts. But they are not easily applied to more complex cases.''
This is NOT a 'more complex' case by any stretch of the imagination.
The purported contract with the motorist is an ordinary 'financial contract' where the loss that Parking Eye thought had arisen (non-payment of a tariff) is easily calculable. Without intellectual dishonesty, it cannot be argued that there is a commercially or socially justifiable deterrent value in this charge, especially as soon as Parking Eye knew that in fact, I paid and displayed.
Any putative contract needs to be assessed on its own merits as regards what would be deemed 'out of all proportion' to the tariff paid and 'unconscionable' given the circumstances. Consumer law always applies and no contract “falls outside” The Consumer Rights Act 2015; the fundamental question is always whether the terms are fair.
In this case the specific question is whether a reasonable person would, when parking in a place where they had paid the correct tariff for the privilege, also accept a further unknown liability in the case of a VRN error (that they were not informed was vital nor ran the risk of a huge fine). I would suggest that a court would not accept that £100 was a reasonable amount given these specific circumstances.
Although the charge was different, the Beavis case was 'entirely different' and does not save the charge in this case, from being held to be unconscionable. This is an unenforceable penalty and cannot be upheld as properly given.
6) Reference the ICO Code of Conduct for surveillance.
Some interesting points arise from use of Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) - see section 7.1. and in particular this:
“
When storing the information and cross referencing it with other
databases to identify individuals, you will need to ensure that these
databases are kept up-to-date and accurate and are of sufficient quality
to prevent mismatches
”
So if the camera takes personal data (registration) and stores it to then cross reference with the registrations inputted, I would argue that
(i) an accurate, quality system would be able to marry up the 3 letters that were inputted?
(ii) that to require more than 3 letters was, in any event, to process more personal data than reasonably required to check for payment
As there were very few cars in this small car park at the same time as the parking event I find it highly unlikely that there were multiple vehicles with the same 3 last letters.
It is also interesting that in a previous case where Parking Eye were asked for a list of all cars that had entered a car park between a certain time on a certain day the list of vehicles that they provided as evidence contained only the last 3 letters of all registrations.
See Appendix 2 which is taken from one of the numerous parking examples concerning Parking Eye that are posted on the Internet.
7) Not Fit for Purpose Invalid Ticket issued against rules of Consumer Rights Act 2015
The reason given by Parking Eye and POPLA for my penalty is that the ticket I was issued with from Parking Eye was an invalid ticket. This ticket was bought and paid for in good faith. According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 any goods purchased should be 'Fit for Purpose'. The ticket that was issued to me was not 'fit for purpose'. Parking Eye took my money to issue an invalid ticket and now want to charge me a penalty of £100 for having an invalid ticket. The invalid ticket was issued due to the ticket machine allowing the transaction to complete when I had entered an invalid Vehicle Registration Number. The ticket machine should not have issued the ticket as all British Number plates contain both letters and numbers and I only entered letters. The ticket machines should be linked to the cameras and only allow correct details, or offer the nearest match and ask if it is the correct VRM before accepting the money
8) Example of previous case Parking Eye v Heggie
Example of previous case taken from many previous cases listed on Internet
New transcript available. ParkingEye v Heggie
3JD04791 ParkingEye Ltd v Heggie (Barnsley, 13/12/2013). Deputy District Judge Obhi ruled that the amount charged by ParkingEye was not a genuine pre-estimate of loss.
Report
In this case Mr Heggie entered the wrong registration number for his vehicle. ParkingEye were able to trace this and confirm that he had paid. However, because they had started court proceedings they refused to drop the claim.
ParkingEye argued that their charge of £100 was a genuine pre-estimate of loss because the whole running costs of the car park needed to be considered.
Judge Obhi ruled that there was actually zero loss incurred.
ParkingEye then tried to argue there was an overstay of four minutes.
Judge Obhi dismissed the claim.
Although ParkingEye claim this was all the defendants fault for not contacting them, it is worth noting that it is their own systems which cause the problem. Systems from other organisations do not allow entry of numbers where a vehicle with that registration was not present.
It is also true that ParkingEye will have had an entry on their system that charges were paid for a vehicle which was not present, and so could reasonable be said to be aware that the problem was likely to have been caused by an incorrect registration.
I expect to hear from you within 14 days to confirm that this charge is now cancelled.
Yours faithfully
APPENDIX 2
====================================
Sunday, 30 October 2016
ParkingEye ANPR flaw at M40 Oxford Services
ParkingEye have yet again failed to cancel a parking charge wrongly issued by their flawed ANPR.
In this case the vehicle keeper (Stan) visited a friend for her 50th birthday party in Oxford, travelling in convoy with another vehicle. They stopped at the M40 Oxford Services between 13.55 and 14.10 for 15 minutes. On the way back, they popped in to fill up with petrol, stopping from around 18:35 to 18:45.
Some days later Stan received a parking charge from ParkingEye accusing him of staying in the car park for 4 hours and 52 minutes.
Stan appealed, explaining that he visited the car park twice on his way to and from a party.
ParkingEye requested proof.
Stan sent them 3 witness statements confirming he was at the party.
ParkingEye ignored this, and sent a letter asking Stan who the driver was.
Stan sent another letter, telling them to read his previous two letters and witness statements
ParkingEye told Stan he had reached the end of their internal appeal process and gave him a POPLA code
Stan appealed to POPLA, including as evidence the witness statements and also a photo he took at the party.
ParkingEye submitted a 93 page evidence pack, including 40 pages listing the last 3 digits of all the vehicles that had entered and exited the services that day.
The registration details of Stan's friend's car was not listed amongst all these numbers, despite the fact that he, too, had also visited the service station twice.
Stan sent an email to POPLA pointing this out, along with a signed statement from his friend including his registration number.
POPLA upheld the appeal
0
Comments
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As they should, it is very unlikely that a judge would have agreed that, because of a minor humane mistake, you should pay them £100. It is scandalous that PoPLA did not apply a modicum of common sense.
It is a pity that you have had to spend so much time dealing with it. I hope you will look into the possibility that they obtained your data without proper cause and that they improperly passed it to debt collects/solicitors. If they had had a good case they would surely not have cancelled.You never know how far you can go until you go too far.0 -
when I received the 'Letter before County Court Claim' I realised that I had to put together a defence using the information from this site and from Parking Prankster. I also contacted my local MP who was very supportive. On the back of my defence and a letter from my MP today I received an e-mail from Parking Eye saying that ' as a gesture of goodwill' ( !! ) the parking charge has been cancelled.
Thanks for all who contribute to this site and to Parking Prankster.
The defence I wrote to Parking Eye is below - if it is of any interest to anyone to use any of it. I'm not sure which bits worked but something must have done the trick, maybe it was the letter from the MP.
Very good, and contacting your MP is a must, for anyone suffering harassment from this industry of 'cowboys' (Martin Lewis' own word, and the word used by more than one MP in this debate this year):
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/parliament-discuss-unfair-parking.html
We encourage everyone to complain to their MP. And when people get a LBCCC from ParkingEye, it can still be cancelled.PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD0 -
In March 2017 I accompanied my son to a car park in birmingham which requires a VRM to be submitted. In error I must have put the wrong digits in as a month later he started getting demands for money owed for parking from ECS. He has ignored all letters as her felt he had paid for parking and it was a mistake on there behalf. He has now received a county court claim for £185. As I must have incorrectly put in his vrm will be defending the matter. I have completed the on line acknowedgement and am in process of writing a defence.
I have seen robathandr thread but unlike him I did not reply to the letter before claim or have the ticket. I did pay and either I put the vrm in wrong or the machine was faulty. I obviously need tofind out why ECS didnt check similar vrms paid for slightly before my our departure and also maintenance records for the machine because this isnt right. Should I contact them formally. I really dont want to waste the courts time.0 -
greystones13 wrote: »In March 2017 I accompanied my son to a car park in birmingham which requires a VRM to be submitted. In error I must have put the wrong digits in as a month later he started getting demands for money owed for parking from ECS. He has ignored all letters as her felt he had paid for parking and it was a mistake on there behalf. He has now received a county court claim for £185. As I must have incorrectly put in his vrm will be defending the matter. I have completed the on line acknowedgement and am in process of writing a defence.
I have seen robathandr thread but unlike him I did not reply to the letter before claim or have the ticket. I did pay and either I put the vrm in wrong or the machine was faulty. I obviously need tofind out why ECS didnt check similar vrms paid for slightly before my our departure and also maintenance records for the machine because this isnt right. Should I contact them formally. I really dont want to waste the courts time.
You really need to start your own thread as answering 2 people in one thread only leads to confusion.
Read this thread which also has instructions on how to start a new thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/48168220 -
Hi,
So I prepaid for parking at the local station. I entered AO07XXX instead of AP07XXX as my reg.
I then recieved a PCN for £100 a week or so later.
I successfully appealed based on my error however they referred to it as my first offence and next time I’d be liable to pay.
I’m at odds with that as I don’t feel I have offended. I paid the money to park. They haven’t lossed anything.
It should be reasonable for them to see under their system that a car has paid and not turned up which has 1 digit different to some they think hasn’t paid!
Further to that I made a point that in the confirmation email my reg wasn’t highlighted. Nor is it on the front page of my account but under account details. So aside from first entering it they don’t make it easy to catch your mistake.
Parking contractor was Indigo0 -
Ginginneee, don't hijack other (long dead) threads. Please start your own.0
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