Parking Eye - Letter before County Court received and need advice

phantomfish

Okay so this is a going to be a long one:
I visited, as we regularly used to do, the Odeon cinema at Freeman's Park in Leicester at the start of July. They have added the Parking Eye system in the few months before this, which I was fully aware of and I received a parking fine letter in early August.

You are allowed to park for free in the car park for up to 4 hours as long as you use the facilities and enter your registration in one of the properties terminals.

We went to see a film on the day and I thought I had entered my details into the terminal (you only enter your registration number and no other details into the terminal). I had been the week before and the week after my supposed infringement and have received nothing about either occasion.

Parking Eye asked me to provide proof that I was using the facilities on site on the day in question. Now unfortunately we paid cash for our tickets and didn't keep the receipt or tickets (who does if you pay cash). So I provided Parking Eye with proof of using a Meerkat Movie code and proof of me logging onto Odeon wi-fi on the date and time in question.Parking Eye refused to accept this evidence as it didn't fall under their definition of acceptable evidence.

I then proceeded to appeal to POPLA. POPLA took all of the information from me and Parking Eye and didn't find in my favour. In their decision they accept that I was in the facilities but that I failed to enter my details into a terminal.

Parking Eye never asked me to provide proof of me entering details into a terminal only for proof that I was on the premises. Since both my appeals have been rejected I have now received a before County Court Judgement letter.

I find this ridiculous as it is impossible for me to prove that I entered my details correctly into the terminal as I cannot rewind time. The terminals provide nothing to confirm correct detail entry, such as a printed receipt, email or text. There is also no accounting for errors in the system how am I supposed to ensure that my details were entered correctly if it gives me no response.

I have spoken to the Odeon cinema manager a week ago and they have emailed Parking Eye to cancel the fine as they agree with me, but Parking Eye has so far not responded. According to the manager Parking Eye usually just send them an automated email response to say they will look into it and not accept any phone calls.

It is now getting to the point where I am completely stressed out by the whole thing and I am terrified of facing the prospect of going to court when I don't feel I have done anything wrong. I need to formally respond to the Parking Eye County Court letter soon before I run out of time (I apparently have 30 days from the date of writing the letter was written 18/12 but didn't arrive till just before Christmas because of the Christmas post).

Has anyone got any advice on where I go from here? I don't know what avenues are left open to me and it is really beginning to freak me out. Thanks.

Browntoa

Have you read the newbies thread yet ?

Quentin

Everyone is politely asked to read up on this in the Newbies FAQ thread near the top of the forum before starting a new thread

Go there now to learn about the game you are now caught up in

#2 deals with court claims, and how to respond to a lbcca

Don't miss any deadlines whilst awaiting confirmation from pe it's been cancelled!

If you have not revealed who was driving to pe you need to edit your post to remove details of who was driving