I've received two parking tickets and was incorrectly advised to ignore them. Please help!

lickleredcar

Hello parking fine experts,

I'd firstly like to apologise for making a new thread, but having read the rules and a number of threads I believe I find myself in a difficult and different situation and if you think otherwise I sincerely apologise.

I'll start with the first ticket I received, or shall I say my girlfriends sister received. She was visiting one of our friends' new apartment and the night before I had visited it and took home the visitors car parking pass. She parked there without the pass and then a few hours later received a parking fine.

The car park is owned by the UK Parking Patrol Office and the fine was issued on the 04/10/2020. She asked me to take a look at it and see what it is she can do, I spoke to one of my dads mates over breakfast and he advised me that you can just ignore private parking fines as they can't enforce payment... So I told her to ignore it.

I then received my own parking ticket for parking in a Wetherspoons car park (which coincidentally was the same morning that I had spoken to my dad's mate about the other parking ticket). I received a £75 fine from Euro Car Parks (which is funny as Tim Martin, the owner of Wetherspoons, is a big brexiteer) for parking in the 'staff car park'.

I used to work at said Wetherspoons and the car park had just recently changed to a 'staff car park' which I was unaware that it had. I spoke to the manager and he said there was nothing he could do about the ticket - I was parked in the car park for under 20 mins

The ticket was issued to me on 13/10/2020.

It has now been 11 weeks and one day since the first ticket was issued and 9 weeks and six days since the second ticket was issued.

Is there any way that we could get out of the tickets? Both tickets were handed to us quite harshly and we might have been able to get out of them if we had appealed with the first month, however I was given ill advice which is why the weeks have now stacked up.

Or will I just have to suck it up and pay these thugs their money?

Thank you for taking time in reading this and again I apologise for posting, I'm just in a terrible situation which is entirely my fault.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas.

LickleRedCar

D_P_Dance

It is not a fine, please follow the guidance in the newbies thread.

lickleredcar

Thanks for replying. I can't see anything about missing the appeal deadline.
It's been 10 weeks I've missed the deadline to appeal am I still able to appeal them? 

Redx

No , too late to appeal but by all means do so using the blue text template from the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum , if it makes you feel better , any appeal will fail , now or when the ntk,s arrived , they will reject all appeals regardless of when they come in , even if it's within the appeal window

Ukppo do not own the car park , they are a private parking company , not an owner

Follow plan A and complain to the landowner , to get cancellations , otherwise it's wait for a court claim pack from the CCBC in Northampton within 6 years

Read the newbies FAQ sticky thread near the top of the forum for advice

lickleredcar

Thank you very much Redx.

Shall I do the same with the Wetherspoons ticket from Euro Car Parks?

Redx

Yes , although if the appeal is too late it will still be rejected , most appeals are rejected regardless to time delays or content

It's the same for all private Parking companies , you snooze , you lose

Plan A is best in each and every case , regardless of who is involved

D_P_Dance

Often an MP can put pressure on a scammer to cancel, have you contacted yours?

lickleredcar

Thank you very much guys.

No I haven't contacted my local MP, I'll complain to the landowner's first and then if that doesn't get me anywhere I'll contact my local MP.

When complaining to the landowners of the UKPPO ticket do you think it would be best if my mate who lives in an apartment there get's in touch with them (if I draft the email and get him to send it)?

Once again thanks guys I really appreciate your help.

Umkomaas

This situation needs two separate threads. We cannot advise against two different tickets from two different operators, affiliated to two different ATAs, to two different people on one single thread. A recipe for utter confusion and total disaster. 

You need one thread for your ticket and your girlfriend's sister needs to start a new thread of her own. You are totally inexperienced in this stuff and you've more than your work cut out dealing with your own ticket.  Get your gf's sister involved immediately. 

I would suggest terminating this thread, starting a new one of your own, explaining exactly where you are with your ticket, and not muddying the water with any reference to your gf's sister. She then needs to do the same for her own ticket. 

Otherwise this is a complete dog's breakfast! 

Not_Scammed

lickleredcar said:

 one of my dads mates over breakfast and he advised me that you can just ignore private parking fines as they can't enforce payment... So I told her to ignore it.

I'd have another word with this 'expert' and ask him to pay it. 

Coupon-mad

Ignore was the advice of Watchdog back in 2010.  A lot has happened since then and we believe some 110,000 (approx) court claims are filed each year.

However, we win at court and you are in it for the long game if the landowners won't cancel.  Start a new thread for the other ticket when you need to.