Drivers’ shock after being hit with parking fines from 2017

MOTORISTS have received huge “out of the blue” fines and a court summonses for parking infringements dating back FIVE YEARS at a South Wales car park.

Multiple motorists say they have received the letters informing them of proposed court action and a potential cost of £300 for the offences dating back to the autumn of 2017 outside Tesco Express at Malpas shopping area in the city.

Some were so shocked by the startlingly lengthy delay that they had thought the letter could have been a hoax.

Two of the motorists who have received letters have told the Echo they plan to fight the fines in court.

Some motorists argue they shouldn’t have to pay the fines because at the time of the offences charges at the car park had only just begun and there was little signage at the Malpas Road site in Newport informing them on where they could and couldn’t park as well as no double yellow lines.

They say as a result many who received the letters were unaware that restrictions had been imposed until penalty charge notices (PCNs) demanding £160 started arriving in April and May.

Mother-of-four Jo Cook shared her strange letter summoning her to court from DCB Legal on behalf of parking company New Generation Parking Ltd on Facebook last week and received numerous comments from others who said they had almost identical stories.

Jo said until the last couple of months she had received no correspondence on the fine for September 2017, which initially was £60, since November 2017.

Jo’s partner Aaron Deal said he also received a letter informing him of a £60 fine for an infringement in September 2017 in November 2017 and appealed it unsuccessfully citing a lack of clear warning for motorists.

He said he received a letter from DCB Legal on behalf of New Generation Parking Ltd on Christmas Day 2017 “demanding payment” of £160.

Aaron’s father Jeff Deal said he sent a written response on January 8, 2018, “challenging the validity of the PCN and making it clear that no payment would be made and that we wanted to progress to court”.

Jeff said that, like Jo, Aaron received no correspondence for five years until May this year. Aaron also ignored the letter and, like Jo, has now received a summons too.

“The landowner put in place parking controls in August 2017 and so the area became monitored but there was very limited signage,” Jeff, who has taken on the case on behalf of Aaron and Jo, said.

“All of a sudden people were being ticketed in an area they’d always parked. There was a man with a mobile phone walking around waiting for people to park and then taking pictures of the car and then you had this flood of parking notices through people’s letterboxes.

“Jo and Aaron received these notices a couple of months after the so-called infringement.

“The signage at the time was very minimal – there was no signage on the entrance, it was a one-way system, there were no yellow lines, no markings where you could and couldn’t park, and the only sign that mentioned anything about it being a private area was facing away from the direction of travel.

“Better signage and road markings were quickly put in place and now it’s much clearer.”

Both Jo and Aaron feel unfairly treated by both New Generation Parking Ltd and DCB Legal, Jeff said.

“They both received the notices in 2017 quite a period after the infringements. In both cases they didn’t actually receive the first notice.

“The first correspondence they had from New Generation was telling them both that the fine would be increased because they hadn’t paid on time.

“I put letters together explaining why neither would be paying the fines and we didn’t hear anything back until May 2022 – the letter was dated April 2022 but they received it in May.

“I assumed from the lack of a response between 2018 and 2022 that it had gone away.

“All these years have gone by and then all of a sudden this has come through. They both had a letter dated

April 2022 informing them of a £160 parking fine at Malpas Shopping Area again – but given it had been five years they ignored the letters, assuming it must have been fake or a scam.

“Two weeks later they got the court summonses through the post. I had kept the letters from 2017 for evidence for both of them until a year ago when I was having a clear out and I shredded them thinking too much time had passed.”

Jo said the pair have been shocked by the summonses which have left them “annoyed and anxious”.

“To find [money] out of nowhere when we have four children is completely unrealistic and unnecessary,” she said. “At first I thought it was a scam, that’s why I put it in Malpas News (Facebook group). But when I read the comments I realised how many people had been affected.”

Jeff added: “We’ve had no explanation as to why it is so late. The most recent notice says the drivers agreed to pay within 28 days but that is not true. There was never any agreement.

Both New Generation Parking Ltd and DCB Legal have been contacted but they are yet to respond.