Euro Car Parks Fine

[slocjo]

Morning all.. My missus normally goes to the local retail park and do a bit of shopping like they do.. Well we had a fine come though the door saying we parked longer than the time aload (it's saying we was in the car park for 5hours) which we both definitely know it's not true, we did appeal but it got rejected.. We only live 1mile away & definitely wasn't in there for that long.or even came back in.
. But how can we prove we wasn't in for that long?? We can't.. Advice what to do please

[Old_Geezer]

While I have no real idea, my first thought is to ask where the evidence of their claim is.

[Hymie]

It is not a fine, it is a penalty charge notice (there is a big difference) – what evidence do you have that you were not parked there for over the allowed time period?

Ultimately the parking enforcement company will have to take you to court to enforce payment, and present their evidence. But if you have no evidence to defend your position, you could end up losing the case and have to pay additional court costs (yours and the parking company's).

[Hymie]

See this youtube video for further advice:-

[Maydup]

Surely they are the ones who have to provide evidence that you were there for 5 hours and not up to you to provide evidence you were not. Otherwise they could send penalties to everyone, maybe me when I am clearly not in their car park right now but how would I prove that. They have to show you the proof. It will turn out to be a camera misfunction but where do you go from here with it?

The question remains.

[Giggsie]

Check out … fight your private parking invoice ….it is on Facebook great help on there with all aspects of parking tickets.

[Gizmonster]

This is the group that Giggsie is referring to:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fightyourprivateparkinginvoice

[slocjo]

Hi all. Thanks for the advice, I will definitely fight this, because we definitely know that we wasn't in there for that long.

[Rosetta]

WE had this happen a few weeks ago, appealed and won. It would seem they linked together two completely separate brief visits a few hours apart but our departure from the first visit was not recognised so they counted it as one continual stay.
yes its well worth challenging. IMHO they try it on, hoping many just pay up as its less bother

[Hymie]

If this ultimately goes to court, and you have no evidence to prove that you did not overstay – prior to the court hearing I would ask them to provide their evidence, adding that you are willing to pay on the proviso that the evidence does indeed show that you overstayed.

If they then refuse to provide this evidence (prior to the court case), should they win the case – you would have a good argument that you should not pay their court costs since you were willing to resolve the matter without recourse to the legal action.

[bhg481]

This is another good reason for having a dash-cam fitted; they record exactly what time you enter and leave the car park so, even if you do make two visits in the same day, you can prove that you didn't exceed the time. A bit late now but worth thinking about.