Result! Parking Firm "Fined" £10,240

Result! Parking Firm "Fined" £10,240

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irc

Original Poster:

8,885 posts

151 months

Saturday 5th April
quotequote all
"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

InitialDave

13,219 posts

134 months

Saturday 5th April
quotequote all
Should've fined them £11,391 just to make a point.

No ideas for a name

2,578 posts

101 months

Saturday 5th April
quotequote all
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?

NuckyThompson

1,921 posts

183 months

Saturday 5th April
quotequote all
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

Gareth79

8,317 posts

261 months

Saturday 5th April
quotequote all
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.

Ian Geary

5,009 posts

207 months

Monday 7th April
quotequote all
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.

MitchT

16,732 posts

224 months

Monday 7th April
quotequote all
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.
Should focus a few minds! hehe

DeejRC

7,581 posts

97 months

Monday 7th April
quotequote all
Public stocks, not prison smile

milesgiles

2,314 posts

44 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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

wibble cb

3,903 posts

222 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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
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 ?


Bo_apex

3,831 posts

233 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
Should focus a few minds! hehe
hehe

Not relevant here but VED should include the right to park on public highways.



captain_cynic

15,130 posts

110 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.

mikeiow

7,116 posts

145 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
Yup. It’s pretty abysmal how some firms operate.

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” wink

MikeM6

5,512 posts

117 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.

JagLover

44,735 posts

250 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
Sounds like justice done here.

Fair enough to raise a fine if someone hasn't paid but not to look to catch honest motorists out.

Roofless Toothless

6,556 posts

147 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
I don’t own a smartphone. I am deaf and can’t hear a phone outdoors even on loudspeaker, and my fingers don’t work properly after an operation some years ago. It could easily take me five minutes to park my car, walk to the pay point, realise I was jiggered, and then drive out again. Why should I be penalised for physical disability? It is not a legal necessity to own one of the damn things.

milesgiles

2,314 posts

44 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
I don’t own a smartphone. I am deaf and can’t hear a phone outdoors even on loudspeaker, and my fingers don’t work properly after an operation some years ago. It could easily take me five minutes to park my car, walk to the pay point, realise I was jiggered, and then drive out again. Why should I be penalised for physical disability? It is not a legal necessity to own one of the damn things.
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

Cold

16,011 posts

105 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
Yep. A better course of action for the parking firm would have been to investigate why there was a problem with people attempting to pay. But I doubt if that would have the potential to be so profitable.

Eric Mc

123,876 posts

280 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.

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.

Mrr T

13,751 posts

280 months

Tuesday 8th April
quotequote all
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.
I don’t own a smartphone. I am deaf and can’t hear a phone outdoors even on loudspeaker, and my fingers don’t work properly after an operation some years ago. It could easily take me five minutes to park my car, walk to the pay point, realise I was jiggered, and then drive out again. Why should I be penalised for physical disability? It is not a legal necessity to own one of the damn things.
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
Do you have any evidence to suggest there was good network coverage in the car park.