Car park fine for white van man who never even got out
John Martin got a ticket for parking in an unmarked bay at the Winsover Centre car park in Spalding but he says he was using common sense.
A VAN driver who was fined £100 for parking “dangerously” says he will fight the decision all the way to court.
Whaplode man John Martin says he parked his van in the Winsover Centre car park on November 8 in an unmarked bay as he considered it to be safer than a normal parking spot.
He was in the car park for about five minutes and never even got out of his vehicle. On the way out he spoke to the car park attendant who failed to mention that she was issuing him with a fine.
Then a week later Mr Martin (59) received a letter through the post saying he had been fined for parking “out of a marked bay” and he owed UKCPS – the company that monitors the area – £100, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.
Mr Martin said: “I decided to park in the block paved area rather than in a bay because then my van wasn’t sticking out – and in a normal bay it’s impossible to get out of the van and for the drivers parked either side to get in or out of their vehicles.
“I was furious when I got the letter because I thought I was doing the safest thing. The attendant never said a word about reporting me.”
Mr Martin has contacted UKCPS to say he will not be paying the fine and he is prepared to go to court if it comes to that.
However Peter Haswell, manager of UKCPS, says Mr Martin needs to appeal in writing.
He said: “We have a photograph of Mr Martin’s van parked in what we deem to be a hazardous position.
“It’s a health and safety risk to pedestrians using the area.
“We have a record of a telephone complaint from Mr Martin but he needs to appeal officially against the fine and we will consider it.”
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Comments
There are 9 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
madbri
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:59 AMthis fraud must stop!!!!!! i own a 6.5 meter long van myself wich i used for private use including shopping within spalding.. i have now STOPPED using lidol over this as i can not fit into 1 of there small spaces and dont want to be bullied by these cowboys.at least when i use sainsburys carpark the parking warden will see me useing common sence when i look around the carpark to see where i can park and if he has a problem he,ll tell you!!! mr martin good luck and dont pay!! lets have a convoy of us big vans outside the courts !!!( just hope we fit in there spaces lol)
longman
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 12:40 PMIts like Jimmymack says, just ignore the tickets and they will go away, i wouldnt even open them i would just return to sender. these company's are working in my eyes illegally and should be ignored. keep working Mr Martin ,dont let them put you off doing a great job PS thanks for security etching my car your service was excellent atb Dean callow
Jimmymack
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 09:15 PMAs said below, its a scam. Private car parking firms do NOT have the same power to impose a fine as Council or Police wardens and officers. What they try to do is enter you into a contract, that you "agree to" when you park. However, the law states that they are not entitled to impose a fine, only a court can do this. So they issue a carefully worded "parking charge" unlike a "penalty charge" which councils and police can do, though they try to make the tickets look as similar as possible. Another thing to remember is that if the parking company took you to court, they could only try to recover damages to the limit of what the land owner who they work for would have lost by you over staying your time. So if the charge was £2 per hour, and you stayed an extra hour the land owner would have lost £2, if the fee is £0 then thats what they could try to relieve you of in court. The best thing is to simply ignore the letters, they get pretty scary and are followed up by official looking bailiff letters but they are all complete bluff. After a period of time they give up. Its a numbers game which makes them a lot of cash, out of 10 people ticketed, 6 will pay immediatley through fear, 2 will pay after a letter or two and the rest who are a little wiser will not pay. If you pay and then try to appeal forget it, its gone.Just dont pay, dont respond and they will eventually give up. However, if you get an official penalty charge ticket from a council warden or a policeman then pay up.
TYREL
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 05:44 PMIf Mr Martin had not left his vechicle surely it can not be classed as being parked, why did the attendent just ask him to move his vechicle if he refused to move then give a ticket. I personally cannot see how it was dangerous to pedestrians & i have seen many other vechicles park there before.
jantig
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:24 PMTicket in a private car park?.... DON'T PAY IT! These supposed "fines" are the new Wild West - and whether the cowboys do it at supermarkets or housing estates, they're often unenforceable...they have no power to fine. (Martin Lewis, 2009).
jantig
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 12:07 PMThese people gave me a ticket for parking in an unmarked bay - i checked them out on the internet. It is an invoice not a fine, They are scam merchants and if you ignore them they will eventually go away - i have a nice pile of demands and pretend ccjs from them - still waiting to be taken to court. Dont pay them, ignore them and research online. Good luck.
choppy
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:40 AMMmmm White van man.
fenlander
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:25 AMIs this the same UKCPS that were removed from Elk retail park Oldham when the landlords (Savilles) got fed up of dealing with all the complaints about them? I wonder how long they will last here.
Mr Angry of Tonbridge
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:30 AMIf Mr Martin never got out of the vehicle. why was he there in the car park? He states that it's impossible to get out of the van in a marked bay. Is there any proof of this? His words tend to make one think that perhaps he did get out since he parked away from the bays. Then, if he really did stay in the van, how come he did not see the person writing the ticket? Did Mr Martin have a ticket attached to his vehicle? He says that the attendant did not tell him he'd been reported. Did he have a conversation with the attendant? There's a lot of information missing here. The bottom line is that he did not park in the designated parking area and he admits it.
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