Result! Parking Firm "Fined" £10,240
Discussion
"A car park operator that demanded £11,390 in parking charges from a driver has lost a court case and been ordered to pay thousands in costs.
Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
I read this earlier and the BBC report makes no sense.
BBC said:
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity.
and then later BBC said:
She found Excel's "conduct in relation to this litigation was both unreasonable and out of the norm", and therefore ordered the firm to pay the winning party's legal costs of £10,240.10.
Miss Robinson said she was grateful to her solicitors, Luke Harrison and Anya Prasad
So has Miss Robinson recieved the costs she incurred with her solicitors AND Excel paid an identical amount to charity?Miss Robinson said she was grateful to her solicitors, Luke Harrison and Anya Prasad
NuckyThompson said:
She had state aid for her defence as presumably she couldn’t afford a solicitor herself. So the firm was ordered to pay the equivalent costs of the state aid to charity
It was pro bono, not legal aid (which pretty sure you can't get for any civil cases except perhaps family stuff), the notional costs were paid to a legal charity.No ideas for a name said:
So has Miss Robinson recieved the costs she incurred with her solicitors AND Excel paid an identical amount to charity?
No.Excel are being made to pay to charity an amount equal to what the pro bono (free) legal advice cost to provide.
A nice dose of medicine for the industry.
No wonder excel are appealing it. The amount of glee the industry shove the Beavis jidgement down people's throats, it will be nice for some concrete judgement to go the other way about unacceptable practice.
I'm surprised Excel didn't just pull the case rather than risk losing, so they must have thought they would get a walkover.
I appreciate landlords/ landowners needs to be able to manage parking, and some people can park like absolute throbber, but the industry does itself not favours.
irc said:
"A car park operator that demanded £11,390 in parking charges from a driver has lost a court case and been ordered to pay thousands in costs.
Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
milesgiles said:
irc said:
"A car park operator that demanded £11,390 in parking charges from a driver has lost a court case and been ordered to pay thousands in costs.
Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid Excel Parking, which has been criticised for charging drivers £100 if they took more than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby, has been doing the same in Darlington.
Hannah Robinson, 21, was among those to be caught out and received hundreds of letters demanding money, as well as repeated phone calls.
Excel Parking eventually took her to court for some of the parking charge notices (PCNs), but a judge has now dismissed the claim and told the firm to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity. "
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2040xy9yn6o
MitchT said:
I think a fitting resposne to these situations would be...

- Victim receives the equivalent of the fine as compensation.
- CEO of parking frim spends one day in prison for every £1 that the fine was for.


Not relevant here but VED should include the right to park on public highways.
wibble cb said:
Seriously? 11k in fines/ penalties and months of worry, and was she at any point trying to evade paying, no ! The app was supposedly buggy and phone signals was poor, did they even suffer demonstrable loss ?
I'm of the mind that if you're going to charge for parking with penalties you need to provide a reliable, easy way to pay.This means if the app malfunctions or in any way prevents you from paying, you should not be penalised... And yes, I know chancers will just park for free and say "but the app didn't work"... that's the point... We need to stop companies from trying to force us into their apps because they don't want to pay for the infrastructure.
captain_cynic said:
wibble cb said:
Seriously? 11k in fines/ penalties and months of worry, and was she at any point trying to evade paying, no ! The app was supposedly buggy and phone signals was poor, did they even suffer demonstrable loss ?
I'm of the mind that if you're going to charge for parking with penalties you need to provide a reliable, easy way to pay.This means if the app malfunctions or in any way prevents you from paying, you should not be penalised... And yes, I know chancers will just park for free and say "but the app didn't work"... that's the point... We need to stop companies from trying to force us into their apps because they don't want to pay for the infrastructure.
I do like the idea of CEOs having some personal liability though. I know our (tech company) CEO was focussed on doing the right thing when the SEC had some clout in that area! As our Finance fella said: “when there sis doubt, then there is no doubt”

milesgiles said:
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid
It can easily take more than 5 minutes between entering a car park, finding a space and parking in it, walking to the sign to find/confirm the location code, loading the app, getting the app to connect and process payments. That is assuming good signal. 5 minutes is not a long time.
MikeM6 said:
milesgiles said:
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid
It can easily take more than 5 minutes between entering a car park, finding a space and parking in it, walking to the sign to find/confirm the location code, loading the app, getting the app to connect and process payments. That is assuming good signal. 5 minutes is not a long time.
Roofless Toothless said:
MikeM6 said:
milesgiles said:
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid
It can easily take more than 5 minutes between entering a car park, finding a space and parking in it, walking to the sign to find/confirm the location code, loading the app, getting the app to connect and process payments. That is assuming good signal. 5 minutes is not a long time.
she did it multiple times. She didn’t think she’d have the app ready after the first time she struggled? Did everyone else on a certain network have the same problem?
She’s a chancer
MikeM6 said:
milesgiles said:
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid
It can easily take more than 5 minutes between entering a car park, finding a space and parking in it, walking to the sign to find/confirm the location code, loading the app, getting the app to connect and process payments. That is assuming good signal. 5 minutes is not a long time.
milesgiles said:
I get that. ONCE
she did it multiple times. She didn’t think she’d have the app ready after the first time she struggled? Did everyone else on a certain network have the same problem?
She’s a chancer
You could not be so wrong.she did it multiple times. She didn’t think she’d have the app ready after the first time she struggled? Did everyone else on a certain network have the same problem?
She’s a chancer
The fact that private parking companies are allowed to insist that people pay for their parking ONLY by using an app should be outlawed with immediate effect.
Why is the government so reluctant to clamp (no pun intended) down on the atrocious behaviour of private parking companies?
I hate the damn things.
milesgiles said:
Roofless Toothless said:
MikeM6 said:
milesgiles said:
She had multiple pcn’s? She took more than 5 mins to work out the app every single time? I’m with the parking firm I’m afraid
It can easily take more than 5 minutes between entering a car park, finding a space and parking in it, walking to the sign to find/confirm the location code, loading the app, getting the app to connect and process payments. That is assuming good signal. 5 minutes is not a long time.
she did it multiple times. She didn’t think she’d have the app ready after the first time she struggled? Did everyone else on a certain network have the same problem?
She’s a chancer
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