# Parking Fine



## berniesbargreece (Aug 22, 2012)

Having travelled from Austria through France, over the pond and into Blighty I found myself almost fallling asleep at the wheel. I sincerely believed if I didnt stop I could have caused an accident. I pulled into the Thorrock Services @ 4.37am, slept for 3 hours and 33 mins. 

I have just got a parking fine from a company called CP Plus asking me for £90 as I overstayed my welcome by 1 hour 33mins. 

Has anyone had dealing with issues like this? I did not see any parking signs as I entered (not that I was looking to be honest). 

I feel my duty to other road users (and myself) far outweigh the parking laws set out by a private company. 

Any constructive advise would be appreciated. 

Regards

Bernie:mad2:


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## berniesbargreece (Aug 22, 2012)

*Very Interesting article on private parking... please read....*

Private Parking Tickets: Tickets are often invalid. Don't pay....


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## bigmillie (Aug 22, 2012)

berniesbargreece said:


> I have just got a parking fine from a company called CP Plus asking me for £90 as I overstayed my welcome by 1 hour 33mins.
> 
> Bernie:mad2:



Its not a fine but an invoice  ignore 
You will get a few letters ignore them , to process into a court case they need to know who was the driver, you are under no obligation to supply this  , 

Also as it is only a invoice to process in court  they have to prove loss


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## n brown (Aug 22, 2012)

ignore


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## Bigpeetee (Aug 22, 2012)

Ignore, after plenty of more seemingly threatening letters, they go away.


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## coolasluck (Aug 22, 2012)

Yep ignore i have had about 5 or 6 letters, each gradually getting more threatening from a supermarket outlaw firm,they aim to put the frighteners on you in order to stump up,i would imagine this works well with some folk and in particular the elderly for them they are playing a percentages game.


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## berniesbargreece (Aug 22, 2012)

*Many thanks*

I do love this website.... many thanks guys!


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## Funky Farmer (Aug 22, 2012)

I agree with everybody else.  Ignore  don't even bother opening the letters.


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## berniesbargreece (Aug 22, 2012)

*DVLA giving out my Information*

DVLA giving out my Information? Should they be doing this? Isnt this a breach of the data protection act?


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## Native Warrior (Aug 22, 2012)

If someone can show 'reasonable cause' - the registered keeper details can be provided. You will be informed first. http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consu...n/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_065259.pdf

As stated elsewhere on this thread, the company will need to issue against the driver. Hope this helps.


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## fairytooth (Aug 22, 2012)

The last time this was discussed I seem to remember that the ownership of the actual land forming the car park is in dispute.  In other words CP (or whoever) have no entitlement or rights over the road which is part of the highway (or something similar.  Please excuse the vagueness but you should be able to Google something about it).

Let us know how you get on, good luck!


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## Funky Farmer (Aug 22, 2012)

berniesbargreece said:


> DVLA giving out my Information? Should they be doing this? Isnt this a breach of the data protection act?


  You would have thought so wouldn't you!  Seems it doesn't apply when a government department is scamming a few bob.  Anyway after all that ...   Still ignore.


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## QFour (Aug 22, 2012)

*Don't do anything*

Don't get involved with them. Don't contact them and put any correspondence straight in the bin. They give up eventually as its not worth the trouble. They realise that if they issue small claims court proceedings against you you will ask for it to be transferred to your local court. They then have to arrange for a solicitor to attend which costs more than what they are after in the first place. If they use Small Claims Online its from Northampton so everyone gets it moved.


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## baldybloke (Aug 22, 2012)

Ignore CP, I received a number of letters from them, threatening more and more consequences if I failed to contact them or pay their penalty, this was due to swmbo and my daughter meeting my son in law, who was travelling back from Afghanistan, stopping to get number 1 grandaughter cleaned up after deciding to eject her dinner in a way that only babies can lol, they were in the car park for 5mins over the 'allowed time'. I have refused to acknowledge their letters, eventually they go away.


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## mikejay (Aug 22, 2012)

As others have said just file it in a draw i got one for doing the same as you 26 minutes over and started flapping never had a ticket so looked on the web and have ignored all 3 waiting for the so called bailiffs letters now. But not heard anything for about a month now.


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## coolasluck (Aug 22, 2012)

Yes as i stated i have had 5 letters to date,this was for a period of 6 minuites.:scooter:


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## Firefox (Aug 22, 2012)

Ignore it as it's only based on implied civil contract which it appears you were not party to, but be aware all motorway services have this restriction on now. 

People used to use them as meeting up and leaving vehicles for days and long term parking for airports etc so they had to impose these restrictions to create space.


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## Deleted member 21686 (Aug 22, 2012)

A friend of mine who drives a lorry parked for 3 hours in the same service station not realising until another driver tipped him off so he lifted the bonnet went inside and informed them he had broken down and they wrote that on their system and he never heard a thing.


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## Tbear (Aug 22, 2012)

I agree with all the above. Do not contact them in any way. Ignore all letters from them.  After a couple of months they stop sending threating letters. It would cost them a fortune to try and put it through the courts and they may well not win.

Richard


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## Admin (Aug 22, 2012)

Hello,

Please have a watch of this video if you want to feel more relaxed about this:

[video=youtube;XAIcdi9niHA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA[/video]


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## lotty (Aug 22, 2012)

I wish I had known that you can just ignore them a few months back when my mum got fined in a local Aldi car park for being 2 minutes over as they were inside in a q !
:mad2:


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## ivecotrucker (Aug 22, 2012)

Thanks Phil (can we call you Esther now ?).


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## Devadave (Aug 22, 2012)

*motorway madness!*

it happened to my mate at work, we all travel extensively in uk and europe and often stop for a power kippet, but we set our alarms to wake up in time after 1 of us stayed over the 2 hours and was fined, the DVLA gave out the owner of the vehicle and the address to the parking company!
He had to pay the fine!
my advice, pull off the motorway find a spot and kip for a while if you cant find a WC POI on your satnav!:scared:


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## baldybloke (Aug 22, 2012)

This is what the parking control companies want you to think, 'pay up or else', though they would not find it worth their while to try to go to court, their arguments would not withstand legal scrutiny, unless they had proof of driver, and acceptance of their terms, all of which is  impossible if you ignore their bullying letters


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## caspar (Aug 22, 2012)

I apologise I've only just picked up on this thread, as this is an area in which I have a particular interest. Apologies if what I say here has been said in previous posts, I haven't read the whole thread. 

These Parking Charge Notices should not be paid. Martin Lewis suggests one way of dealing with them, which also advises non payment. I preach totally ignoring them. The 'ticket' is not a ticket at all, it is a speculative invoice. 

There are two major flaws with them. One is they rely on Common Law of Contract which is extremely difficult to prove. The other is that if they were to take you to court, and they will send further letters getting increasingly nasty, before stopping, they can only claim for any consequential loss. Assuming parking was free, they have lost nothing. If parking was £1 per hour and you stayed 10 hours, they could take you to court for £10, hardly worth their while. 

Unlike Penalty Charge Notices (which coincidentally also abbreviate to PCN) which are issued by Traffic Wardens, or Fixed Penalty Notices which are issued by the police and thus dealt with in a Magistrates' Court, not a County Court as they are criminal, a Parking Charge Notice is actually driver dependant, not registered keeper dependant. The registered keeper has absolutely no obligation whatsoever to reveal who was driving at the time.

While the companies that send these out make them look official, have the legal right to access registered keepers' details from the DVLA and will send a series of letters threatening court, in reality virtually nobody has been successfully prosecuted. Of those that have, none of which I am aware have been defended in court, so there has been a summary judgment. 

Please do not pay this.


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## Package (Sep 2, 2012)

*Parking Charge Notice!*

A relative of mine has just got one of these tickets at a motorway service station. I advised him not to pay and await the letters.I have researched this on the web and found the following to be very useful and reassuring. 


The Barrister Blog: A challenge to a private parking charge notice issued at the car park of The Aggi in Braunton


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## baldybloke (Sep 3, 2012)

DVLA make money from providing the details, so it will be a long time before they say no!


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## Robmac (Sep 3, 2012)

The DVLA are possibly in breach of the Data Protection Act in this instance.


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## Robmac (Sep 3, 2012)

Actually, reading further into it the DVLA can do the following;

Information from DVLA’s vehicle records

DVLA has to evaluate carefully the reasons for the request as well as the way in which the information will be used before disclosing information. This means that information on the vehicle register can be lawfully made available for a variety of purposes, to the public and private sector bodies. A fee is charged to cover the cost of dealing with requests under the reasonable cause provisions.

Information can be sent to:

    the police
    local authorities
    car parking enforcement companies
    solicitors
    finance houses
    property managers
    private individuals who can provide ‘reasonable cause’ for needing the information


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## baldybloke (Sep 3, 2012)

Being an old and bitter bloke, I think as far as the DVLA is concerned, they can charge a fee, so they can then find a reason to decide the information can be given out


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## DakotaJim (Sep 3, 2012)

I run a large number of commercial vehicles and my drivers seem to collect these things, its not just service areas its supermarkets, retail areas and McDonalds that CP+ Ltd run. As everybody has said ignore them and dont reply to them but do keep eveything they send you. We get them roughley every 3 - 4 months they send up to 6 letters getting stronger with each one then they go away because you are starting to cost them more than they will recoup from you.

But, from the 1st October the law is changing. The registered keeper of the vehicle will be liable for all parking fines unless he reveals who the driver was. 

Personally i dont think its right because CP+ camera recognition system isn't the best, its not foolproof. We had a driver enter Maccy D's at M25 J22 at 7.30am got his coffee went off to Kent to do his deliveries, on the way back went into the same McDonalds at 3.30pm for more coffee we then got a letter saying the vehicle had been there for 8 hours, this is because the camera system didnt clock him out in the morning!


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## Robmac (Sep 3, 2012)

I refuse to deliver to London anymore.

I picked up 3 fines in 1 day recently. Traffic Wardens are really crafty, I mainly deliver to pubs, some of which are on Red Routes, how the hell are they supposed to get deliveries!


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## jann (Sep 3, 2012)

It has been the normal sign on motorway car parks for many years now that there is only 2 free hours parking allowed. I'm surprised that anyone who uses motorway services does not alreay know this


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## caspar (Sep 4, 2012)

I refer everyone to my earlier post which covered all points made since I think. 

If the law is to change to make these Parking Charge Notices driver dependant, it makes not one jot of difference. The arguments of Common Law of Contract and the various stages that involves, coupled with the parking company having to prove a consequential loss which makes it worth pursuing enforcement of the speculative invoice (it is NOT a ticket!) mean it is highly unlikely any of these will ever see the inside of a court room as long as they are defended. If they threaten you with court proceedings and actually pursue them, you must defend. They are 99% guaranteed to back out then, even if it is at the very last minute. 

Any undefended case, which most quoted by these companies are, have been undefended, and thus a summary judgment has been awarded.


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## vwalan (Sep 4, 2012)

hi casper we know dont we .ha ha . authority abuse if ever there is such a thing . do nothing and lose . please sir can i tip all my money into your swag bag . ha ha .


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## Footpad (Sep 4, 2012)

*They don't GIVE it!*

Sorry I posted this before I realised that the point had already been made and whilst I can alter the text to this I can't seem to delete the post.


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## caspar (Sep 11, 2012)

Tis easily done lol! Don't worry.


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## David & Ann (Sep 11, 2012)

berniesbargreece said:


> DVLA giving out my Information? Should they be doing this? Isnt this a breach of the data protection act?



As advised, IGNORE. Bear in mind not to stop at that particular Companies Rest places on the Highway through out the GB. They will clamp your vehicle until the fine is paid for that previous incident. BEWARE !!!


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## northernspirit2001 (Sep 12, 2012)

I paid one in a tesco supermarket in my car but won't do again after reading this thread, TUT, I really am a muppet!


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