Smart Parking - Am I too late

Ishoulfhavecomeherefirst

Hi all,
Having looked at the newbies parking ticket page I am unsure how to proceed as we have already communicated with Smart Parking responding to the first letter with an appeal to them.

My wife used a car park (free for 2 hours at Total Fitness, she was there for 40 mins taking the kids swimming), she entered her Registration and obtained a parking receipt. She entered the reg but mistakenly entered one wrong digit. The pictures from Smart, showed the vehicle entering and leaving.

Being naive, and not coming here first, we both assumed that appealing to Smart Parking itself as in the first letter would be enough. However, as I know know, that was never going to be successful and have received a response:-

"We note the comments in your appeal confirming that when visiting the site in question on the day of contravention you entered the incorrect VRM into the payment machine when purchasing a ticket. Please be advised that by entering the incorrect VRM this results in no payment being assigned to the correct VRM for the 40 mins the vehicle was on site, which subsequently breaches the advertised T&C.
As detailed on the car park signage, it is the responsibility of the motorist to enter the full and correct VRM when using the payment machine, and ensure payment is made for the full required stay duration. Furthermore we can confirm that the tickets are printed after the motorist has confirmed that the details they have entered is correct,
We wish to inform you that the car park in question is operated by ANPR cameras which capture images of your vehicle entering and extining the sire, which subsequently calculates you total stay duration. This information is then paired with the info entered into the payment machine to ensure the correct payment has been made again the full and correct vehicle reg for the total duration the vehicle is on site".

As she has written to them, and told them that she had been at the location then the template dose not appear to be valid to send to POPLA.

What advice can you guys give? I am sorry if I have missed a previous post, I have tried to find one that matches.

Thank you for your time in reading this,

R

Umkomaas

Appeal to POPLA, but they have shown no sympathy towards the de minimis act of one incorrect digit input. However there are a number of other grounds like signage, authority to issue charges, contract with the landowner, no keeper liability (provided you haven't already identified the driver).

You can find ready to use templates in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #3, so use those to build your first draft, then let us have a look at it.

Have you contacted Total Fitness and asked them to intervene?

Even if you lose at POPLA there is no imperative on you to pay this - you can simply ignore it and see if Smart would be daft enough to take this to court. I can't see any Judge giving this time of day, as the court does not deal in trifling (de minimis) issues.

Ishoulfhavecomeherefirst

Thank you for you quick reply, I will draft a template. My wife said that she visited the car park, I will have to wait for her to get home from work before I can see what she put in the first letter.

Thank you again..

fisherjim

The correct payment was made, and they have admitted that and confirmed everything said in the appeal.

I doubt that a judge would fall for their scamming tactics, but POPLA will not cancel on that so their appeal needs to be on signage, T&C's technicalities etc., and everything you put in Smart have to answer or they fail.

The_Deep

AS FJ says, a judge is likely to think that this is a trifle, perhaps he is aware of the scam, so a court appearance would, imo, be unwise, but PoPLA are likely to support them, how daft can you get.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.