Wrongly issued parking fine

[Marissa5]

Has anyone ever been wrongly issued a parking fine? My son's school has a car park next to it. It's usually half empty as it's so expensive. We usually walk to school but on two rainy days we drove. I've been given a fine for apparently being parked there for 5 days. I wasn't. It caught me going in on the 1st day, and going out on the 5th. I went in and straight out without parking (just to swing round) on both days! I've appealed it and shown them a fuel receipt from the days between those dates (but doesn't prove it was for fuel for my car!). One fine was at 3.31pm and the other 3.32pm so I'm hoping they'll use their common sense and realise what's happened!

Is it camera operated?

You can't go in at all if it is unless you pay parking.

They will check and see its multiple entries. What company is it?

Definitely challenge it. If their cameras are working properly there will be footage of you going out on the first day and coming in on the second day. If there is no footage the their cameras are clearly unreliable. They won’t take it to court. There was an episode of radio 4 You and Yours about this in January last year.

I've been given maybe five parking fines that were either wrong or reasonably unfair.

I challenged them all and gave as much evidence as I could. In four of the five cases the fine was rescinded

I have had something similar happen to me. I ended up going through POPLA to get it resolved in my favour. If it is an ANPR system, I read that it is known to have issues with multiple visits on the same day so it may be the same over multiple days.

Money saving expert has everything you need on this topic and that forum will get you out of it if you have grounds

I had this with Tesco. I nipped in to buy something on the way to work.

That evening, I picked my son up from cricket practice and we popped into Tesco for something he needed.

I got a fine claiming I'd parked in Tesco for about 10 hours!

The store manager sorted it out and cancelled it. He said it doesn't always register leaving and coming back if you park there twice on one day.

This isn't true. There is a grace period in car parks for this exact reason, for example so people can drive in, see there are no spaces available and drive back out again. Regardless, they're trying to charge me for 5 days of parking when I was in the car park for approx 20 seconds each time.

Horizon

Do you have location tracking on any apps like Google/ Apple maps? It should show you in different locations to help prove you were not in the car park for several days.

My brother got loads of horizon fines because he was going in to the same carpark multiple times a day and was adding them up to one huuuuge stay. He challenged them with the data fr9m google maps showing that he was elsewhere and they wrote back saying he had to prove that he didn’t have access to another car as he could have left one car in the carpark and driven around in another car. 🙄 So he wrote back and said that he would bring that information to court amd he never heard from them again. But they apparently have seven years to pursue you so it’s not a very relaxing feeling.

You don’t need to prove you weren’t parked there for several days. It’s up to the parking company to prove that you were.

Also this isn’t a fine. Only government agencies have the power to issue fines. What you have received is
merely a speculative invoice (albeit deliberately dressed up to look like a fine to scare people
into paying.)

Just tell them you weren’t there for 5 days, and unless they can prove you were then you won’t be engaging with them any further.

No, they will not go through all the footage. These companies are after making money - sorry to be so cynucal

it Depends which parking company it is as to whether it’s worth appealing- if it’s part of poplar (sp?) then it’s worth appealing and seeing through, if it’s the other one it’s not likely to be won on appeal

Also remember it’s a fine for the driver if the car and not the registered keeper - so you can tell them to give the fine to the driver and you’ll not be assisting them with the answer to who was driving

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6535986/horizon-pcn-new-template

it is popla so if it was me I’d appeal, know you’ll probably lose the appeal ( it’s an internal appeal process) then take it straight to poplar sfterwards

It's on them to prove that there was a contract and you saw and accepted the terms of it and then proceeded to breach the terms which means they can then invoice you. I'd tell them politely but on no uncertain terms that they are a bunch of shysters and if they have any actual proper evidence that I was parked there for five days I will see them in court, with my own evidence showing my car parked on my drive for sustantial periods during that time.

Yeah this happens all the time at our local Asda where the car park is privately owned.

They fine people for being there all day when actually they have just made 2 separate trips.

They usually get it wiped at customer services desk. But it’s the reason i avoid going there more than once a day.

I had this.

i had to appeal to a human and they did wipe it. I avoid that carpaek now