ParkingEye County Court - advice needed please

KeithP

Forever_Frugal wrote: »

Not sure what I am doing wrong here, but haven't received a reply since the 12th of November - should I be starting a new thread of court defence advise?

You are not doing anything wrong.

There are very few people here able, or willing, to comment on legal issues.

You need to be patient - bump your thread every day if need be.

You still have a week to go.

Forever_Frugal

Unfortunately for me, my patience in waiting for advise on my defence didn't pay off, but hopefully what I have submitted will be suitable, and good news I have received confirmation from the courts that my defence has been received, so balls in the claimants court for the moment...

Thanks to all that have been supportive, it has encouraged me to stand up for a bit of justice, hopefully it will pay off.

Angrydriver0404

Almost exactly the same thing happened to me at Grafton St car park: The car park has barriers at the entrance that have been indeed partially removed and the entry ticket machines covered up.( I have images of machines and signage) I see barriers temporarily out of use sometimes at Piccadilly train station where I go a lot to drop people off through my work so I wasn’t unduly concerned, I just thought ‘ great, must be working on the machines!’
With no ticket issued on entrance, machines covered indicating as out of order, I met 3 other drivers who had also been confused at being unable to get a ticket on entry. One of the other drivers said that the car park ticket machines were out of order, so it was assumed by all this must be the case. No big deal, it happens.
After taking our very poorly office cleaning lady to hospital, an hour later I returned to my car. With no one paying at the exit machines and no parking attendant in sight, there was nothing else to do but drive out.
I repeated this again the same day - when I came back after work to see how our lady was doing. I did it twice in one day!

The following day, I went back again to see her. Only this time walking back into the car park I saw people paying at the machines and was totally confused! I asked how they were paying without a ticket and that’s when I found out no one had tickets! and they showed me how to pay.
Once I had paid I went to the kiosk on the ground floor hoping I could explain and pay for the previous days parking. Not a chance, they told me to look at all the signs on the walls asking drivers to pay on exit. I asked him to show me one that says “There is no Ticket Required in this Car Park” and why the defunct entry ticket machines did not have this information posted on them? He rolled his eyes as though I were stupid then told me I would have to wait for 2 x penalty charges to come in the post. I am far from stupid, I can see through a scam as clear as day. Hundreds of drivers who do not use such car parks regularly would expect to take a ticket and pay at the machine on the way out, being none the wiser of any change. What makes it more disgusting is in this hospital car park it seems they exploit people who are likely to be going to visit a sick loved one. Particularly vulnerable people less inclined to protest at the fines due to the stress they are already under. Parking Eye have made no attempt at transparency to aid such infrequent users of his hospital car park. Not even a notice on the b**^%^ entry ticket machine!!!
I have already written to Parking Eye asking for a clemency, asking to be allowed to pay the parking charge for the 2 unpaid in error visits before the fine gets issued, however after reading multiple horror stories about Parking Eye posted by others I very much doubt I will be pardoned.

Angrydriver0404

How can I find out if Forever Frugal was successful in the court case against Parking Eye at Grafton Street Car Park? I did send a private message but no joy. There is no update on the outcome here on the forum. I have just received a PCN and have exactly the same issue (see previous post) over the polythene covered Entry Ticket Machines at Grafton Street car park, making it look as though they are out of order (11/2/2019. I took images! why are they still there covered in polythene over a year since they changed the payment system?) They are raking in the money in fines that's why!. There are lots of complaints from furious users who have been sent a PCN after assuming the barriers were out of order, but I cannot find one case result of an appeal against Parking Eye over it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Coupon-mad

You need to stop posting on an old thread.

Read the forum stickies. The NEWBIES thread gives you a template appeal that is designed to get you a POPLA code, and POPLA is a stage where you can use your photo evidence.

Also check your PCN (NOT the 'reminder') on the back, for POFA 2012 wording - the POFA is explained in the NEWBIES thread.

No more replies here, please, this is FF's own thread about their own case, which is not at the same stage that yours is.

Unless FF comes back, we've no idea if they are near a hearing yet.

Forever_Frugal

I went to court and won!!!!!

ParkingEye failed to pay the court fees and the case was dropped, until two days before the court date when I had a call from the courts saying they had misplaced the payment from ParkingEye who had actually paid.
They then went on to say that they were honoring the original court days, so I had 2 days to dig out my notes and prepare for court.... I suppose I could have asked for a later court date, but wanted to get it out of the way.

ParkingEye decided not to attend but sent a legal representative who took a tough starting line talking about all the signs that were in the car park. They also had presented an exhibit in there witness statement which supposedly listed other drivers who had paid for their parking at the time of my stay, however on review none of the exit times matched up with when my car was parked, but the judge hadn't spotted that.

I had made the assumption that the judge would have read both parties defense and witness statements, and it wasn't until part way through discussions that he admitted he hadn't!!

However once I made it clear that there were no signs on the covered ticket dispenser and presented many statements from other drivers that I found relating to Grafton Street, the judge was quick to rule in my favor and even award me my costs (which unfortunately turned out to just be my bus fair home as every other cost I attempted to claim for was apparently not claimable).

Le_Kirk

A win is a win - well done.

Umkomaas

even award me my costs (which unfortunately turned out to just be my bus fair home as every other cost I attempted to claim for was apparently not claimable).

No loss of earnings?

Well done on your win. Could you give us the location of the court and the name of the Judge please?

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST