Tesco - fined for 15s over

akkers

There is a Tesco supermarket car park. It says between 0600-1800 maximum parking is 3 hrs, 1800-0000 max parking is 90 mins and 0000-0600 parking is max 15mins.

I drove in and parked in the car park believing it be before 1800 and stayed just under 2 hrs. True to form the Tesco parking firm Horizon sent me a fine in which they claimed that I entered the car park at 1800:15 (ie: 15s after 1800) and overstayed the 90m max.

Now I believe that I entered the car park before 1800. Understandibly clocks can be a minute or two out and I guess my phone clock may not have been in sync with their clocks. But there was no way to check what their time was. There was no clock or parking meter in the car park nor anything inside the supermarket.

I find this surprising being fined for 15s. Is there any mileage in taking this to appeal? If so, on what basis?

Gr1pr

Forget the above,  study the newbies sticky thread in announcements near the top of the forum and check the NTK PCN letter   ( its an invoice,  not a fine  ) for Pofa2012 compliance,  which they probably failed,  meaning that the keeper appeals based on no keeper lliability due to their failings 

Keep_pedalling

It’s not a fine, and it’s not for 15s. Your interpretation of the signage is wrong you are not allowed 3 hours if you turn up just before 18:00 you get 90 mins plus the short period you were there before 18:00, so don’t use that as a way of trying to avoiding payment, there are better ways of doing it.

Robin9

I read those times differently to you.   You were parked in the period 1800 to 0000 for over 2 hours in which free parking only applies for 90 mins of that. - it does not say if you arrive before 1800 you can park for 3 hours. 

Half_way

Crap signage causes confusion, but makes the parking companys money.
they may as well add in that blue cars can park for 3 hours between 19.00 and 23.00 but only if they arrive after 19.15 on  the second Thursday in the month

akkers

Actually I had a friend who arrived 15mins before me and left at the same time as me and he did not receive a fine. So my conclusion is that he entered the car park around 1745 and was granted 3hrs.

D_P_Dance

As others have said, it is not a fine.  It is a monetary claim in a civil court for the alleged harm you caused them when allegedly you breached an alleged contract.  Contract Law applies.

Switcher_Sam

@Half_way is spot on.  The Tesco-Horizon signs are universally confusing countrywide, and this is almost certainly intentional. Since the following version was introduced last year near me, I see many reports on local Facebook groups of low-hanging fruit paying the £40. Dreadful hierachy of information and a Sunday evening restriction not revealed until line 3 in this particular case. And as in your case @akkers , no info about what happens if you cross a time-boundary.:



Appeal to get your POPLA code. (Horizon will reject initial appeal, and lie that their NtK is PoFA compliant and signage is BPA/IPC compliant.) Then they will withdraw at POPLA when you use the 28 days point from recent threads (also include signage and landowner authority to your POPLA appeal). For the 28-days point, check the back of your NtK still has this wording:

Good luck

Coupon-mad

akkers said:

Actually I had a friend who arrived 15mins before me and left at the same time as me and he did not receive a fine. So my conclusion is that he entered the car park around 1745 and was granted 3hrs.

More likely (perhaps...ask him!) I suspect he hasn't updated his logbook address and the PCN has been issued to his old address.

Or - if I'm wrong with that educated guess - he got lucky and his VRM wasn't captured either on arrival or when leaving.  Maybe just due to being close to another vehicle. Happens a lot.

You won't be paying.

But tell us: same wording EXACTLY on the back/top of the PCN? Or the longer version?