Euro Car Park fine appeal at gas station

Yeti28

Hi

I received a fine from Euro Cark Park for when I stopped at an Esso Gas Station for a flat tire and I was at the Air Pumps at the front next to the shop for around 35min.

I appealed the fine with card statement showing the charge from the air pump, invoice from service on the same day fixing my punctured tire and I asked them to review the CCTV camera cause I even asked the staff for help (I am a new driver and had trouble with the air pump at first).

I left after I managed to get the tire to the right pressure to slowly drive to a service for a permanent fix.

They rejected my appeal stating:

"After carefully reviewing the information you provided, Euro Car Parks (ECP) have decided to reject your appeal for the following reasons:

• The Site is operated by an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. ANPR cameras have captured an image of the vehicle registration mark (Removed by Forum Team) entering and leaving The Site and calculated the duration of stay.

• Parking at The Site is limited to 15 minutes. Your vehicle entered at 07:35:06 and exited at 08:10:55 therefore was parked longer than the maximum period allowed.

• Signage located throughout The Site clearly details the terms and conditions. On entry to private land, it is the responsibility of the driver to ensure all terms and conditions as detailed on the signage are adhered to.

• As previously advised, the car park is camera controlled, not patrol monitored, and therefore it is imperative that all extenuating circumstances are reported to Euro Car Parks at the time of the event.

There have been no reported extenuating circumstances, and the vehicle registration has not been added to the exemption list for the date in question, therefore parking charge has been issued correctly and remains payable. The parking charge notice has been issued correctly and remains payable."

I didn't even know that was a car park to be honest, I thought its a gas station and was in the air pump bay. I did call the gas station when I first got the fine to ask for CCTV but they said to explain what happened with receipt and they will cancel it. That didn't happen and when I called the gas station after getting the rejection letter they said to appeal again. They also said they don't have any cctv anymore.

I sent an appeal to POPLA but has anyone had anything simillar happen and what is the usual outcome please?

Gr1pr

Ideally you complain about it ASAP after receiving the pcn from ECP, to the petrol station ( not gas, not tire )

Often its MFG or similar

Its not a fine, its an invoice for the alleged breach of the parking contract on that private property

It wasn't a car park, its a private property with time restrictions of 15 minutes on site

You wont be able to obtain CCTV

Keep your evidence and obtain pictures of the signage on that site

There have been other cases of overstaying on petrol stations

I would have thought that it should have been cancelled due to a mechanical failure, especially for a paying customer, but ideally you should have got the shop staff to exempt your vehicle at the time

Nellymoser

Do keep any invoice/payment receipt for the permanent fix to your tyre.

Yeti28

The petrol station staff didn't do that and when I contacted them after receiving the charge they didn't mention having such a system they only told me to appeal via europark website. I did that with receipts for evidence and they rejected my appeal stating they weren't notified of my vehicle being an exemption.

I called Esso petrol station and they keep saying they don't have a system to whitelist cars.

The CCTV is no longer available since it's over 30 days and the staff is not helpful either.

Coupon-mad

Complain to MFG if it is one of their sites.

The Successful Complaints about PPCs thread has a successful MFG example and tells you how to avoid the fob-offs from whatever his name is who first replies. Read that post. It was maybe 3 or 4 months ago on the latest posts on that thread.

Go above his head to the CEO.

You'll never have to pay this but landowner CEO cancellation is just a flurry of emails and is by far the easiest route to kill it.

Yeti28

Thanks for this, it was one of their sites and I contacted them and they were more reasonable to discuss with and it ended with them cancelling the charge.

Half_way

Quick question, are you a UK national?

as the terms gas station as opposed to petrol station and the word tire instead of tyre could indicate otherwise.

The reason for asking is there is a higher chance you could be in a rental/hire vehicle and as such you could be more likely to be conned by these parasite parking company's and the scum who work for them.

This could also do with a further check complaint the vehicle was not parked, possible involving the CMA as well