SMART PARKING Private parking ticket - haven banks exeter

EstelleD95 · 10 April 2019 at 12:12PM

Hello all! I need your advice..
Here are all the details:
I received a parking fine from Smart parking at that !!!!!! car park in Exeter..
I arrived, parked up, paid for a ticket and left before the time expired. However I only entered the last 3 digits of my reg rather than my whole reg.
They contacted me within 2 weeks.
Luckily I still have the ticket to prove I paid.. and stupidly before reading online, I contacted them and admitted I was the driver, by trying to appeal saying I had actually paid and left before it expired..
They wrote back and basically said, there was no ticket matching my whole registration (probably because of the fact I only entered the last 3 digits) so I still had to pay the fine..
I'm going to appeal to POPLA I think,
But just wanted advice on what to do?

Umkomaas · 10 April 2019 at 12:38PM

I'm going to appeal to POPLA I think,
But just wanted advice on what to do?

Do just that!

Read up on how to develop and draft a POPLA appeal in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #3. Come back with your draft and someone might be able to critique and give you some pointers before finalisation.

The_Deep · 10 April 2019 at 1:25PM

Read what Pete Wishert, MP said in The House of Commons recently about Smat Parking.

"I am sick and tired of receiving emails from people complaining about the behaviour of parking companies, telling me that they will never again visit Perth city centre because of the negative experience they had when they had the misfortune to end up in a car park operated by one of these companies. I have received more complaints about one car park in the city of Perth than about any other issue. That car park is operated by the lone ranger of the parking cowboys: the hated and appalling Smart Parking—I see that many other Members are unfortunate enough to have Smart Parking operating in their constituencies. It has reached the stage where one member of my staff now spends a good part of each day just helping my constituents and visitors to my constituency to navigate the appeals process.
…
The BPA does not have the ability to regulate these companies and has shown no sign whatsoever that it is trying to get on top of some of the sharper practices. The BPA gives a veneer of legitimacy to some of the more outlandish rogue operators by including them in their membership, allowing them to continue to operate. The Bill will oblige operators such as Smart Parking to amend their practices."

Get your MP on board, they are totally on your side. On 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these private parking companies. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, and persistent offenders denied access. Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers.

Until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

fisherjim · 10 April 2019 at 1:30PM

You are dealing with scammers, and they like to brag about how wonderful their anpr systems are.

But in this day and age if their crappy system has farmed your full VRN, why is it they issue a paid up ticket from their stupid pay and display machine for a VRN that is not on their system?

If you put in an incomplete VRN their dynamic database knows it does not have it recorded so should not issue a ticket (receipt), and inform the motorist THAT VRN DOES NOT EXIST IN OUR DATABASE simple.

Isn't is ironic though that their system can quite easily issue a PCN after the event.

I am sure a judge or two has already agreed with this line of thinking.

They are pure scum, and greed infested scammers nothing less!

EstelleD95 · 10 April 2019 at 7:43PM

This is EXACTLY what I thought. They're quite happy to take my money for a registration that apparently doesn't exist and hasn't entered the car park and then fine me putting me at a major loss of money and time/effort. But God forbid you put them at a loss for making a simple human error that their !!!!!! little cameras can't comprehend and all hell breaks lose. I read a horrifying statistic that 90% of motorists pay private fines whether they're in the wrong or not just to save the hassle which is putting these knob heads in business. In fact I work with 2 people who did just that, and I've been warned how noutorius this car park is for being a rip off now. :mad:

Coupon-mad · 12 April 2019 at 1:44AM

Umkomaas wrote: »

Read up on how to develop and draft a POPLA appeal in the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #3. Come back with your draft and someone might be able to critique and give you some pointers before finalisation.

As above.

No sending off a losing POPLA appeal about mitigating circumstances.

And for the love of God tell your colleagues how to win, look:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5988552

14 PCNs from Smart, all cancelled or about to be cancelled, by using an appeal template that DOES NOT talk about who was driving!

So easy when you know how.

We do this ALL THE TIME v Smart, never lose, ever. So simple. One email, no POPLA.

Now you are playing catch up at POPLA stage and you need to read the 3rd post of the sticky thread and try to rescue a bad appeal into a winning one. by making it as long as possible to see them off.

EstelleD95 · 15 April 2019 at 7:09PM

Okay so.. I've done my research on points to get my ticket overturned and there are only a few that apply to me.

So the obvious one is that i have a ticket I have paid for, so their claims of me over staying and not paying are not true, but they're saying their isn't a ticket for my full registration number.
Shall I simply say and show evidence of the ticket? Do I add anything like.. Why don't the machines only let you purchase tickets for registrations that have entered the car park? or is that a bit of a waste?

The next one is: I have requested via email that they provide me with evidence or a contract between them and the land owner stipulating that they actually have permission and are within the terms to issue me a PCN? - They have refused to provide me with such evidence and have done so via email so I have evidence of this.

The other one is signage: I mean the whole reason i'm in this mess is because I didn't realize you had input your whole car park reg. because it's in tiny small print and how can you read that from a car? Nor do I think it is clearly signposted by the ticket machine. However, it is written there. In small tiny print... So arguably it is there. Not sure whether to put this in too?

Thoughts?

Coupon-mad · 15 April 2019 at 7:16PM

None of the above.

Submit a LONG POPLA appeal including all the usual templates and forget that you blabbed who was driving, and include the ones about 'no keeper liability/Non POFA PCN' and the one about the individual appellant not being shown to be the person liable.

Smart HATE long POPLA appeals, and are likely to give up without checking.

Lydiaa232 · 23 August 2019 at 11:42AM

Hi I was wondering how you got on with this, I am in the same situation and was not aware of the popla template on here so when I appealed it was denied and I was wondering if you had any success?

Thanks!

SMART PARKING Private parking ticket - haven banks exeter

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