Forgot to display blue badge.

onlyfoolsandparking

I agree 'pay and move on' unfortunately many Judges have very differing opinions on parking scammers, some destroy them in Court, others focus purely on legal argument and others appear not to care, its a lottery.


Whilst it would be very unwise to throw good money after bad with any sort of appeal, you could of course shout from the rooftops how badly you have been treated by the parking scammer you unfortunately had the bad luck to cross paths with.


Complain to the Landowner, boycott the car park you committed the heinous crime in, write reviews on all social media naming and shaming the scam, contact your MP, your local paper, start a local petition etc etc.


It may not achieve very much and it certainly wont bring you your lost money back but I always feel if we (General public) voiced our opinions more with action/s sometimes things change for the better, I wish you well.

waamo

You should complain to your MP though. Parliaments gaze is very much fixed on the antics of these companies. There is legislation going through to try to curtail the excesses of the industry.

antandann

I did post about the case, but I was fairly confident I had it in the bag due to the equality act stating that a service provider cannot dictate the terms of a reasonable adjustment that has been provided for a person of protected characteristics. Coupon Mad did comment on my original thread, but with hindsight I should have posted my defence on here.

Good money after bad? Yep, maybe I should know when to quit. What a country when a disabled person uses a disabled bay and is fined £250.

Coupon-mad

and stated that the similar case to my wife's had been wrongly decided in his opinion.

He's wrong.

IMHO Excel v Greenwood was decided correctly, given that the driver had MS and forgetfulness was a feature of his disability and he told them and showed Excel he had a BB in an early appeal. So they 'knew or should have known' about his disability, in his case, and should have cancelled it at the outset.

If you want to find out more about your rights you could email the EHRC and ask if they can support you, or at least can see an argument for appeal, based on your facts and the Equality Act.

An email to them might be worthwhile but if they say they can't see you can argue it further, then you will have to pay it and complain to your MP and the landowner.

You could, if you fancy it, sue the landowner for this loss, given they have a duty to make proper provision under the EA and have allowed their parking scammer to ignore the EA and not make reasonable adjustments. Your case would be better if you complained to the landowner at the time and they did nothing to resolve it because you could sue them for THEIR failure to adhere to the EA.

Costs £35 to sue for £500, which is cheaper than the appeal (£110?) and might put the wind up the landowner enough for them to reimburse you...

beamerguy

That's a great shame .... who was the parking company ?

As said there are some very bad judges who are due to be put out to grass ...... you had one of them ?

It is your right to complain about such a poor judgement

The_Deep

. Does anyone think it is worth appealing this decision? We already have £250 to pay.

£250 seems a bit high. Are you sure that they did not include something which should not have been allowed and the judge let it through. If that is the case you could have a free pop at the judge.

AFAIAA, there is nothing to prevent you making a claim for disability discrimination against the PPC and the landowner. Who is the landowner? Also, get your MP onside.

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this year..

All five readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 7-8 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

beamerguy

Coupon-mad wrote: »

You could, if you fancy it, sue the landowner for this loss, given they have a duty to make proper provision under the EA and have allowed their parking scammer to ignore the EA and not make reasonable adjustments. Your case would be better if you complained to the landowner at the time and they did nothing to resolve it because you could sue them for THEIR failure to adhere to the EA.

Costs £35 to sue for £500, which is cheaper than the appeal (110?) and might put the wind up the landowner enough for them to reimburse you...

I would do that. A letter to the landowner advising your intentions and if ignored, it's worth £35 to do this

antandann

Lost the court case. The judge stated that he would have argued that the Greenwood case had been wrongly decided and ran roughshod over the equality act defence.

Could I appeal this decision in the higher courts? Can you apply for legal aid if the case escalates to crown court. Absolutely gutted. Yet again the justice system steam rolls the little guy. Thanks for everyone who tried to help.

Coupon-mad

As per your other thread - email the EHRC to find their take on it. Might be worth an appeal if you had the big guns supporting you with what to say to get an appeal looked at on the point of Equality law.

Consider suing the landowner for your tangible loss and significant distress and the harassment, which is specifically illegal under the EA.

onlyfoolsandparking

beamerguy wrote: »

I would do that. A letter to the landowner advising your intentions and if ignored, it's worth £35 to do this

Definitely worth doing this AND if the Landowner has any scruples/morals (some do some don't I would guess) you might get fully reimbursed, I suppose it depends how much adverse publicity you can expose the Landowner to, the more the better I would suggest and that IMO would give you a real chance of full reimbursement.