£100 fine for 10 mins in EURO CAR PARKS whose pay-meters did not recognise registration plate number

Maz_77

 One evening in December 2020 I parked in a half empty Euro Car Parks carpark about 10 minutes walk from the city centre with the intention of doing some Christmas Shopping.  I tried to enter my car registration number in the pay-meter devices so I could pay for a few hours.  Unfortunately the pay meters did not recognise my number plate number when I typed it in, and I could not use my bank card to pay.  I tried to press the green button but no ticket was produced so I could not buy a ticket to display.  I tried this several times for about 10 minutes. I think the problem was due to their camera image of my number plate not matching the real registration plate number. It is possible the card had sanitiser on it as I have been using it regularly to clean my hands due to the Covid-19 pandemic or there was another problem with the pay-meter machines.  I looked for a phone number to call but I could not see one on that evening as it was very dark in the car park as there are no lamposts in the parking bays.  I actually do not think the phone number was displayed on that day but I cannot be sure of that, I do remember it was very dark though.  There is a phone number there now. 

I actually tripped in one of the potholes & hurt my ankle in the car park walking from my car to the payment machines as it was so dark & there are lots of uneven surfaces (I counted 10 potholes & uneven surfaces in the carpark which includes a large pool of rainwater that spans 3 x carspace widths).  After many attempts to buy a ticket from the pay meters I gave up and left the car park 11 minutes after entering. Six days later a Parking Charge Notice for £100 arrived in the post.  That charge could have been discounted to £60 if I paid within 14 days, however I did not open the letter until after that as I like to 'quarantine' mail due to the Corona virus pandemic - I actually believe I had Covid-19 earlier in 2020 but was never tested. 

I am more than happy to pay the minimum 1 hour charge however I think the £100 or even the discounted £60 penalty charge is extremely excessive for 11 minutes, given that the majority of that time was spent trying to make the payment and the rest was spent driving in, parking & driving out.  I believe the proposed parking charge notice is completely unjust & unethical given that I did everything I could do to try to make a payment for a ticket.  I have never intentionally not paid for parking, this problem was completely due to a technical problem that was beyond my control.

This parking charge notice is causing me enormous anguish & stress at a time when I am already suffering from mental health issues due to the third lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Myself, and later on, my sister & my brother-in-law have both had the Covid-19 virus & I had been runnung errands for them.  My sister is an NHS care worker who I was out attempting to do shopping for on the evening of the parking charge notice.  I am also due some significant repair & decorating bills at the moment due to the recent rain storms and this excessive parking charge fine for a 10 minute park up is causing me to lose sleep. 

I have appealed to Euro Car Parks but they rejected my appeal. They say I can appeal to POPLA next but if that fails, I can register a complaint to Euro Car Parks and a after that I can write to complain to the DVLA however I believe that I may still be taken to court & may have to pay court costs etc which could be over £400 on top of the £100 charge.  I have seen a website for a company who I think can help get this Parking Charge Notice cancelled (Parking Fines Ltd) but I am not sure if that will succeed and instead I might be better to try and appeal to POPLA myself first?  I just worry that if they reject that, it may only leave 14 days for the company who helps with appeals to try to cancel the parking charge.

If anyone has any advice on where I stand from a legal perspective to try to avoid this fine, further charges and possible court action, it would be very greatly appreciated? (The carpark is in England.)  Thanks for reading.
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NOTE. Euro Car Parks reason for rejection is below:
Having carefully considered the evidence provided by you we have decided to reject your appeal for
the following reasons:
 The car park is operated by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).
 Cameras capture an image of vehicles entering and leaving the car park and calculate their
length of stay on site.
 When purchasing a pay and display ticket, you must enter the correct vehicle registration
mark (VRM) and this information is directed to the camera system.
 I can confirm that no pay and display ticket matching your VRM was purchased at the time of
the terms and conditions.
 The signage is clear, a valid pay and display ticket must be purchased for the full duration of
your stay on the car park.
 In the event of any pay and display machine being out of order it is prudent to check for any
other machines on site and obtain a ticket from an alternative machine or sought alternative
parking.
 Please be advised that there is a pay by phone option available on site.
 I can confirm the parking charge notice was issued correctly and remains payable.
Please make payment of £100.00 by visiting our website at www.eurocarparks.com or use the
automated telephone service 0203 553 4559. Alternatively make your cheque payable to Euro Car
Parks Limited (to include a £2.50 handling charge for cheque processing) and post to Euro Car Parks
Ltd, 30 Dorset Square, London, NW1 6QJ, quoting the PCN number on the reverse of the cheque.
This amount is now due and the charge will be held for 14 days to allow time to make the payment. If payment is not received within this time further charges will apply.

Ralph-y

Hi, and welcome to the forum.....

have you had a read of the newbies thread ?

the newbies thread/discussion
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou/p1
make sure you start at the first page not last

Your first course of action is what we call plan A ...

who owns the car park? this is your next complaint.

Be careful of online parking ticket firms ... check out their reviews ... as in trust-pilot .....

after sending a complaint to the land owner ... which should all so include a complaint re your injury ...

you will need to start reading up on the newbies thread about POPLA appeals as well as the POPLA decisions sticky

" I believe that I may still be taken to court & may have to pay court costs etc which could be over £400 on top of the £100 charge."

you have been misled / misunderstand some thing if ... If ..... this went to court it would be capped at about £200

Ralph

Umkomaas

Appeal to POPLA - see the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, third post, for ready written templates, requiring just a little adjustment to reflect your parking event. But if payment wasn't made I'm not sure you'll convince POPLA that the charge wasn't correctly issued. That doesn't mean you pay it, you just see how far ECP will pursue it. 

POPLA won't be interested in the state of the car park, nor the affect of hand sanitiser on your credit card. But if you pile in the appeal points, and given that many PPCs have furloughed their staff, ECP may not have enough people to deal with a full-blown POPLA appeal, then you win by default.  Just part of the game currently. 

Please read the POPLA website to learn that while you must meet their deadline for submission, it will not be dealt with at this stage. 

Le_Kirk

Maz_77 said:

I have seen a website for a company who I think can help get this Parking Charge Notice cancelled (Parking Fines Ltd) but I am not sure if that will succeed and instead I might be better to try and appeal to POPLA myself first?  I just worry that if they reject that, it may only leave 14 days for the company who helps with appeals to try to cancel the parking charge.

Absolutely NOT.  You are in the best place for help and if you go to the NEWBIE sticky and submit a POPLA appeal, although they tend not to accept mitigating circumstances, you should appeal to POPLA as it looks better IF you do have to go through a small claims hearing as you will have attempted to resolve the issue.  I think a judge would be sympathetic to your case (my personal opinion IANAL).

Fruitcake

If you are considering using a company to deal with this for you, have a look at the feedback given on Trustpilot or similar first. I am quite sure this will persuade you to go out and buy an eleven foot bargepole, because you might not want to touch them with a ten foot version.

This forum provides the best advice there is on the internet in my humble opinion. It is run by volunteers who are experienced and dedicated, and charge not a penny for their time and advice.

PoPLA codes last 32 days, but don't leave it until the last minute.

Create a draft appeal using all the template points from the third post of the NEWBIES, and post it here for checking before you submit it.

Your appeal should include : -

Not the landowner
No standing to issue charge
Frustration of contract
BPA CoP failures
No contract (No offer to motorists where the system fails to recognise a VRM)
ANPR failure

The PoPLA website currently allows you to enter a holding appeal and add more later when covid restrictions allow more PoPLA staff to work, but personally I would want to get this over and done with asap.

Umkomaas

PFL is linked to a coloured fish. 😊

Fruitcake

Umkomaas said:

PFL is linked to a coloured fish. 😊

Would that be the Blue Kipper? 

Umkomaas

Fruitcake said:

Umkomaas said:

PFL is linked to a coloured fish. 😊

Would that be the Blue Kipper? 

More of a fresh water variety!

Jenni_D

Hareng rouge?

Umkomaas

Jenni_D said:

Hareng rouge?

I don't think so. 😉

Maz_77

Many thanks all.  I'll draft a submission letter for POPLA & post here one day soon for a bit of feedback hopefully.