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Judge enforces parking penalty in landmark case
Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 15 October 2008
A Rochdale man has been made to pay a parking charge after parking his car on private land at St Andrew's Church in Littleborough following a landmark court case.
Oldham County Court heard the case of Combined Parking Solutions (CPS) versus Stephen Thomas, of Chadwick Street.
Last November Mr Thomas, 26, was issued a penalty notice of £85 by CPS, who acted on behalf of their client, St Andrew's Church. The fine would be reduced to £65 if it was paid promptly.
Mr Thomas received the fine after parking on the church's private car park without a permit. He admitted that he was the registered owner of the vehicle and that he had parked on the car park before.
He said he could not remember whether he was driving the car on the occasion that the ticket was issued and that he had not seen the signs that warned drivers not to park without a permit.
Mr Thomas visited online communities and advice boards, which have been setup to give advice to drivers in order to evade parking fines.
The forums had always stated that a properly defended case would never fail and this case would highlight the illegal nature of these charges.
The forums advise people to ignore these charges and never to contact the companies as they are 100% certain no action will ever take place.
Mike Perkins, from CPS, said that Mr Thomas had posted on a consumer internet site outlining the incident and asking for help on the day that he was issued with the charge.
Mr Perkins also claimed Mr Thomas modified the original wording of his post when he was informed the matter would be brought to court.
Mr Thomas admitted that he had written a post but could not remember what he had written. He did not admit that he was the driver of the car in court but District Judge Ackroyd decided that on the balance of probabilities he was and declared that Mr Thomas did not have to have seen the warning signs, only that they were present.
The case was awarded to CPS and Mr Thomas will now pay a £135 charge with £1.86 interest, as well as a £25 listing fee, £25 hearing fee and £68 for Mr Perkins’ mileage and £3.50 for parking.
Mr Perkins said: “This is a landmark hearing.
“Internet sites have always said these are unenforceable penalties. The judge clearly stated a contract was entered into, although the defendant never admitted to being the driver.
“I would warn people from going on these internet sites. If you have a legal question, see a solicitor.”
Comments
Just to add...
The forums had always stated that a properly defended case would never fail and this case would highlight the illegal nature of these charges ... This has been shown to be TOTALLY false.....
I feel sorry for Mr Thomas, he obviously went onto these sites thunking he was speaking with legalally qualified people instead he wasnt and it cost him over £250 !!!
If you were ill .. would you go online and ask a bunch of people who called themselves doctors.com .. Of course not .. so why do this in legal issues .. It doesnt make sense.
I think this has proved that parking charges on any land where signs are present will be backed by the courts and end up costing more money .
The key here is to look where you park before doing so ... look for signs .. If in doubt do not park !!!!
There is no definition in law of a "Landmark" ruling. It usually implies that a precedent was set by the case. A precedent cannot be set in the County Court and as a result nothing has changed.
The cases are often unenforceable because the signage is often woeful, the company are attempting to bring a case against the keeper not the driver and sometimes that the rules were not broken at all. That has not changed.
I cannot comment on the quality of the signage but in this case Mr Thomas was not unequivocal as to whether he was the driver and the judge clearly believed he probably was. He would not have helped his case by altering the documents.
If there was a genuine independent appeals process - not the driver appealing to the parking company who act as both judge and claimant in deciding whether he should pay them the money - these cases would not go to court. The parking company appeals process is a sham and people with a good defence have no other recourse than to go to court as it is the first place they will get an independent hearing. If they have a good case the courts will throw the parking claim out.
This particular case was badly deffended by MR Thomas.The use of an online posting as the focus of the case is laughable. I note that the owner of CPS has not taken up the pepipoo challenge because he will lose. He purports to operate under legal basis which there is none, to state that this is a landmark ruling, utter rubbish. Ignore these!
Further to the above, I urge anyone who has been issued with one of these 'invoices' to research the subject.Not many court cases are successfull, many that make it to court actually lose. CPS is a chancer and is well known to pepipoo and CAG so watch what you post on forums. Good luck.
I reiterate CPS TAKE UP THE PEPOPOO CHALLENGE !!
One more post to sum up, the deffence you can find on forums was written by a solicitor.It is based on contract law and actual loss to the land owner, which is normally zero. What these private company base their argument on is breaking the rules of a purported contract.The contract is based on the 'driver' and not the registered keeper.
So if you were not the driver, and the cost of using the car park is zero then the amount owed is nothing. I urge once again to research this subject and your eyes will be opened.If you properly defend in court these companies will lose, that is why they choose thier victim carefully.
Ok Im on a roll now.The reason im posting here is because I was a victim of 'Town and country Parking' they patrol my local Asda. I was Issued with one of these 'INVOICES' due to the fact that i parked outside the parking bay lines.I was forced to do so by a 4 by 4. Anyway, to cut a long story short I approached Asda with an ultimatum.
By my calculation I spent £100 punds a week in there store, my immediate family spent a further £200 pounds. This made a total of £15,600 pounds a year.I stated if they continued to persue this 'invoice' myself and my family would go else where. Guess what!! Town and countr parking were told to drop the ticket. I wondewr why!!
For the sake of an illegal demand of £60 Asda would be losing £15,600 a year. Something that CPS dont mention when they lose clients customers.Work that out over 15 years.
By the way, read perky88 threads on consumer action forum.
He was banned. I wonder who that is!!
So to finish my rantings as a victim of the type of company
Mr Perkins runs. Do your homework,if you post on a forum dont post personal details. If you parked in a supermarket car park, complain to the manager. Point out what revenue they would lose if you and your family and freinds were to go elesewhere for thje sake of an illegal demand of £60
It adds up to thousands. Finally log on to CPS see how he operates, do your homework and draw your own conclusions.
People who ignore these invoices I know by personal experience are solicsitors and legal employees, you will never see these in court. Good luck PERKY.
Have Your Say
Just to clarify the wording of "landmark" ... This is not a legal precedent but a "landmark" as the reporter correctly stated "The forums had always stated that a properly defended case would never fail and this case would highlight the illegal nature of these charges" ... This clearly shows the forums are wrong and these charges are legal.
By preciseinfo1 @ 15/10/2008 21:52:44