HIGHWAY ROBBERS
A new Dick Turpin is brandishing £100 parking fines after buying your address details. Here’s how to stand up to these...
STEEP car parking fines are a modern day curse, raking in millions of pounds every year for private firms and cash-starved councils. Although car park operators are using increasingly sinister tactics to ensure these fines are paid, victims can hit back. About half of fines challenged are overturned.
Private firms have been obtaining driver details by paying the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency to provide private address information that can be traced from a car number plate.
Armed with this data, the companies – running car parks at hospitals, shopping centres and restaurants – are sending threatening letters demanding up to £100 in fines. Last year, a record 4.7 million people had their addresses bought for £2.50 apiece by car park operators, earning the agency almost £12 million.
Philip Gomm, of The RAC Foundation, says: ‘Fines sent through the post often use intimidating wording and extortionate charges are often levied for minor infringements – such as accidentally overstaying in a car park.’
Private companies earn an estimated £500 million a year from issuing parking fines. While equivalent data is not available from councils, they pocket at least £750 million from a combination of car parking charges and fines.
Parking campaigner Barrie Segal, who runs website AppealNow, says: ‘They are the modern-day version of Dick Turpin, acting like outlaws by making outrageously unfair penalty demands. It is a huge money-spinner for them.’ Key to the success of many car park operators is the use of bullying tactics.
If you pay up in 14 days, they say, the penalty amount will be halved, panicking most motorists to foot the bill rather than fight a charge.
There is also the threat of sending debt collectors round if a fine goes unpaid, though court agents cannot go knocking on a door without first going to court. What the parking attendants fail to reveal is that half of motorists who fight a fine eventually win. But you must arm yourself with information.
PARKING CHARGE NOTICE
MOTORISTS fined for overstaying a paid-for period or parking without permission on private land are issued with a ‘parking charge notice’. If a motorist wants to challenge the fine, they can take up their argument with the car park firm. In England, motorists can seek redress through arbitration but this is not an appeals mechanism open to motorists in Scotland.
If the company is a member of the British Parking Association, such as NCP, English drivers can contact Parking on Private Land Appeals within 28 days. But because Scotland has opted out of the Protection of Freedoms Act, the BPA decided it could not extend its appeals process north of the Border.
Here, there is no evidence that anyone has ever been taken to court for an on-off infraction. It is also a legal requirement north of the Border that a company must prove who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence.
Alternatively, the car park operator might be a member of the International Parking Community, in which case someone disputing a fine must take it to the Independent Appeals Service. Again, this is not
an avenue open to Scots drivers. Car park firms not affiliated to a trade group will find it harder to chase you for a fine.
In theory, only members of the British Parking Association and International Parking Community should be able to track you down through the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency database. PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE A CAR parking fine on councilowned land is known as a ‘penalty charge notice’.
The process of appeal is more structured than for parking on private land. Motorists have 14 days to argue their case with the council, after which drivers have the right to appeal to the Independent Parking Adjudicator
In Scotland, appeals to fines issued for driving in bus lanes go to the Parking and Bus Lane Tribunal for Scotland.
In London there is a separate institution – London Tribunals. You have 28 days to argue your case.
MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
Poorly marked signs: The car park firm must prove all signs were clearly visible and that the parking rules were marked out and not obscured – for example, by trees or poor night lighting.
If markings on a bay were rubbed out, this can help in disputing a fine if it is issued for being in the wrong spot.
Ticket not visible: If you had a valid ticket but it fell off the dashboard or was upside down you can present this as evidence. Councils are more likely to accept this than private firms.
Three-minute rule: If you get a ticket in the first three minutes after arriving you can argue you had gone to find a machine.
A broken car park machine: If the ticket machine is out of order it is up to you to see if there is another one in the car park. If you cannot find one take a photo of the broken equipment as proof.
Emergency stop: If you can offer evidence of a breakdown or other mitigating circumstance, such as pulling over for health reasons, this may help your cause.
A legal technicality: A private firm is not issuing an official fine but notice for a breach of contract.
You might therefore ask to see the contract between the company and landowner to see if it is watertight. A firm must prove it correctly issued a charge.