Onus on car park firm to prove driver

CAN Indigo advise what percentage of tickets issued at Ninewells have been cancelled as a result of customers advising an appointment or shift has over run?

And can NHS Tayside also advise how often they’ve been asked to intervene on behalf of patients, visitors or staff and how many tickets have been cancelled as a result?

Indigo maintains it is taking court action as a last resort, ie, the nurses taken to court have failed to engage with the company to resolve the parking charge notices issued.

The claim from the nurses is these charges have been as a result of their shifts over running.

If Indigo can confirm appeals made on this basis are successful on every occasion — which would seem fair under the circumstances — then perhaps nurses finding themselves in this situation in future would be more likely to engage with Indigo to resolve the situation rather than just ignore all correspondence.

If, however, neither Indigo nor the health board are of any help in these situations then, as far as I’m aware, in Scotland there is no specific legislation dealing with parking on private land.

So the general principles of contract law would then apply.

Simply ask Indigo to advise who was driving the vehicle, providing proof. The company obtains the registered keeper details from the DVLA, but the registered keeper is not necessarily the person who entered into the contract with them.

On the assumption they’ll be unable to provide the proof asked for then ask them to cancel the ticket and stop bothering you.

I’ve been successful with this approach in the past where another family member actually incurred the charge notice.

I think regardless of whether you were the driver of the vehicle ticketed — ie, technically guilty — the burden of proof that you were the person who entered the contract is still on them in order to successfully take you to court.

I don’t think they can force you to disclose who the driver was.

From what I can gather the nurses sued all used different lines of defence which essentially admitted in the first instance to being drivers of the vehicles ticketed.

Perhaps any readers who are members of the legal community can confirm?

Beat the parking charge notices.