So cross… parking fine

[CrochetMadRosie]

Does anyone have any ideas of where to go next please?

Back in the summer I was in hospital for 2 weeks. My family came to visit me every day paying the horrendous car park charges.

One day the cameras weren’t working and said that my husband had been parked for 24 hours. A security officer/ parking attendant was there and told him to just pay for the hours that he had been there.

Roll on a few weeks and he had a parking fine with photos showing that he entered one day and left the next.
We looked on the Money Saving Expert website and appealed with evidence showing that he paid on the first day and paid on the second day and hadn’t been there for 24 hours and they rejected it.

It went on to the next part of the appeal process and we provided further evidence of a time and date stamped video of my husband at home onto the evening of the first day from our blink camera (unfortunately the videos of him arriving home in the car were already erased from our other blink camera), but we’ve just heard that they have rejected it again!

I had two stays totalling almost a month in hospital over the last few months and we’ve paid almost £200 in parking fees and it is making me SO cross that they want even more of our money when we didn’t do anything wrong!
DH wants to pay the fine (now £170) and not go to court.

I’m looking for people we can contact now to at least feel like we’re not just accepting it!
I’ve so far got…
Our MP, PALS, the security team at the hospital, Rip Off Britain.

Any other ideas please? Thank you!

There’s a parking ombudsman x

Surely hundreds and hundred were impacted?

One day the cameras weren’t working

how do you know?

Don’t pay!!!! And go to court! Absolute money grabbing bastards

It says in the op, when he went to pay he was charged for 24 hours.

Although I don't understand how it let you pay part of the charge rather than what the machine thought you owed.

This is a good point I’d find your local hospital/ postcode page for tne Hospital and put a post out

Because they incorrectly recorded DH being there overnight when he wasn't.

Tell them to take you to court. You have footage that shows the car coming home. If they don't want to accept that it's their problem. Stand firm.

Also report them to the hospital trust and trading standards for being total cowboys and persecuting you at a difficult time. If it turns out numerous people were affected and have received tickets die to faulty cameras, this needs the attention of the local press as well.

When I had a parking fine for a hotel car park, the parking company refused all evidence I provided that I was a guest, staying at the hotel. I eventuallywent to the hotel itself and they cancelled the fine.

This also happened to me at an Aldi. I went there twice in one day and was fined as if I had stayed the day. I went immediately to the Aldi manager with my shopping receipts and they had the fine cancelled.

You need the hospital to cancel the fine, if the cark park was in the hospital grounds.

Double dipping is a well known thing for these parking cameras. Email Tony Taylor at [email protected] I know it sounds dodgy but he’s got his own FB page and has helped around 10k people get their fines thrown out of court (including my daughter for the exact same thing) He charged £15 last year (may have changed)

I had a fine at a hotel where I knew I had submitted my details. It was initially rejected on appeal. I then went through POPLA and the parking company did not respond to their requests and I won, so definitely worth going that route if it is available.

If the cameras really hadn’t been working in a hospital car park, then you would be one of hundreds if not thousands impacted

The parking attendant/ security officer did something I think or told him how to.

Unfortunately our doorbell deletes footage after 14 days and this was after that time.
Our other blink camera that does the side of the house, shows him at home and we sent them that evidence (all date and time stamped) but they’ve still rejected our appeal!

Thank you. I’ll have a look at that. I’ll try anything as I’m so cross!!

I suspect your husband has messed up here op

That's their problem then. It's they who will have to show that on the balance of probabilities he was parked for the entire period.

I would assume he paid before leaving the car park, as normal, but the camera didn't pick up him leaving the car park shortly afterwards.

You need to investigate whether it picked up him entering the car park again the following day.

Local newspaper, Chief Executive of the hospital.

There’s a group on Facebook that I am in called ‘challenge Your Private Parking Ticket’.

The owner of the group is really good. He helps a lot of people like you out and gets tickets overturned. Have a look.

This is what’s know as double dipping. Where the cameras miss one of your arrivals/departures and think you’ve been there longer than you have. Google double dipping and you’ll find advice on what to do.

Remember that this is not a fine! Only government bodies can issue fines. This is just an invoice from a private company - which they dress up to look like a fine and then scare you into paying it.

The fact you have paid for both days, and you have the video of your husband at home, means that any court would throw this out. The parking company know that and will unlikely even take this to court, they are just hoping they can scare you into paying.

Let them take you to court as the onus is on them to prove you were there. Watch out they don’t try and sneak a CCJ on to your husband

Is your husband bothered at all or is it just you?

That happened to one of our work vans but luckily for us the vans have trackers and I was able to show where the van was parked overnight and also that they had been on a different job the following morning before returning to the original car park.

Gather all the evidence you can of being elsewhere and appeal to POPLA. If it does go to court you have a very good case.