AIBU to appeal a private car park fine for leaving site?

[Rosesandthorns66]

Has anyone got any advice regarding a parking fine I have received in a private car park.

I didn't over stay but instead of going to the shops first, I went to the bank to check my balance at their ATM.
The fine says they've got a 20 minute recording in which period I did not return.
Also, it says reason for issuing fine is: as its a patrons only carpark.
To be honest, I didn't realise that, I only looked at the time that was allowed for parking which is 3 hours.
When I returned, I did go to the farmfoods to do a small shop.
Has anyone got any advice if I have grounds on which to appeal this.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I suppose I am in the wrong and unfortunately its an expensive mistake which I won't be repeating again.

You don't, these are becoming more common with the high street dying off and more industrial style shopping coming in. There is one near me where people get caught all the time, you are expected to take your car with you if you want I go elsewhere. So sorry.

I think your best option is to go back and take a photo of the signage as reference and then carefully read it to understand whether or not you have broken the rule. If it says along the lines that car cannot be left then it will be difficult to appeal but if it is not that explicit, if it just says for patrons only then you could send them your receipt or bank statement from farm foods to show that you did indeed shop there.

In this instance I would just pay the fine and chalk it up to experience. I have successfully contested a private parking fine before but the circumstances were very different. The process took 18 months but quite honestly the stress involved and court appearance weren’t really worth it.

Did you pay for the Farm Foods purchase by card? If yes, I would print a copy of the bank statement and cross out your bank account number and send that as proof that you were a patron.

I assume you don’t have a receipt? If you go to Farmfoods and tell them the date and time of purchase, they may be able to re-print the receipt or confirm in writing that you were a patron.

Don’t give up, always appeal! I have always appealed and reversed many charges.

I really don’t get why people on MN are so defeatist.

This doesn’t need a court appearance.

Thankyou for the replies.
ViaRia01@ I will be going today, and I will take a picture of the signs to read carefully.
Your reply is appreciated.

I am a single parent and especially with the cost of living, £60 is a lot. Unfortunately if there's nothing I can do I will obviously pay it.

In the future, I'd rather walk then park there again. The problem is even the on the side roads they be full of cars, so it gets difficult to find parking space.
But like I said I won't take any chances next time.

My DS got 6 fines in Lidl for similar and in 5 of the cases a proof of purchase (bank statement) let him off.

Often the shop themselves are very helpful if you go in and speak to a manager. There's a similar set up near me and the manager just gets them written off if you can show you shopped there .

Thankyou for your response.
I bought milk, will check today, if I paid cash or by card.
I normally pay by card for bigger shop. I did try and look in my shopping bag, for the required receipt. I will look in the car, today.

On the fine letter, it shows pictures of me heading out of the car park.
Do I still stand a chance with the appeal?

That's why getting the specific wording of the sign is important - if it just says, "patrons only" and you can prove that you were a patron you'd have a much better chance than if it says, "no leaving" (even if you can prove that you were a patron).

Them being able to show that you were gone for a more than a few minutes (i.e., just enough to hit the ATM) may also count against you, but worth a try.

Thankyou.

I’ve appealed similar and said I needed to head that direction to a mental health issue / sickness etc. I also denied being off for longer than a few minutes. They rejected it but I kept my side and just followed the procedure. They dropped it before it went to court.

I’ve been to court several times over tickets for numerous different reasons. Only one ever actually went to court as they usually dropped it, but I won that. There’s lots of Facebook groups with advice and MSE forum is also helpful.

If this is the one in a west used town that’s also for a farm foods and had this problem our MP got them to cancel all the tickets and change the t and c’s!

Before you pay, check out the advice on Martin's MSE. There's also a FB group where a guy called Tony appeals them on your behalf for about a tenner. He has a phenomenal success rate

Why don't you just park in accordance with the rules, seems like a waste of life to be spend time on court appearances for something unavoidable

The wording used for
Reason for charges is:
Parking for Patrons whilst on the premises Only.

Totally agree with this.
I made a mistake.
Unfortunately it will be an expensive lesson to learn.

This is why you should always insist on a receipt, even if you've only bought a pint of milk. It's all well and good to save wasting paper and help the environment; but when we live in a world of corporations and councils who frequently build their business models around catching you out, you have to do whatever you can to protect yourself.

A lot of modern life just leaves me so cynical and cold, when businesses and authorities work (effectively imho) conning people and taking advantage of confusion into their profit predictions.

i get that there needs to be a mechanism to stop and punish wilful offenders; but - even as we've seen on this thread and countless others - they know that they can bully and gaslight people, obstinately send them around in circles and wear them down to the point that they just pay up rather than persist in fighting it. They clearly don't care about honour, integrity, goodwill or even returning custom - gerting as much money as they possibly can is their only driving force.

It makes me think of the credit card providers who send patronising letters to tell people off when they incur fines for late payment or going a little over the limit, as if they don't want to profit from your disorganisation or other issues, when in fact you're their ideal customer! Same with the gambling companies who keep pretending that they actively do not want the problem gamblers who make them so much of their profit! At least the tobacco companies are honest about it - that their profit is infinitely more important to them than your life - and don't pretend that they want you to stop!

I always think it's interesting how, if some random parked on your own private drive and left it there for months, you legally can't do a single thing about it... yet if you overstay your time by a few minutes in a shop, public or council car park, or your ticket blows off the dashboard when you close the door, or maybe you were being cheeky and parking there for a few minutes when you shouldn't have, they come at you for a huge amount, with the full force of the law and threaten court and bailiffs etc.

Never even for the actual stated cost of the parking that you should have paid, or maybe double or triple to take account of your error and their admin time (although likely all triggered automatically)... but tens or even hundreds of pounds?! You'd think that they would be deeply embarrassed to pursue you for £100 for parking in the corner of a deserted car park for an hour, but they have no shame whatsoever.

I thought there was a law that stipulated that fines and penalties have to be proportionate to the actual loss that they suffered as a result of your actions; but I must have been very mistaken.

In that case, I don’t think a receipt from the shop will help you unfortunately.

Thankyou.
I've looked this person, Tony, up, I will get intouch with.

Do their terms and conditions say that you can't go into other shops at all during your stay? Normally they say you must be a customer of that particular shop, cinema etc but it doesn't preclude you from going elsewhere as long as you adhere to the overall time conditions.

I will go and look up the carpark signs, to see how the wording on that is. Will also get intouch with the person Tony on facebook. He's very popular. I will definitely make an appeal on the grounds that I did do my shopping at farmfoods, so I was a patron, whilst using the carpark.

Besides,
The whole carpark was empty at that time and I didn't stop any other shoppers from not being able to park there.

I would ask Farmfoods if they can do anything first. Some managers will cancel fines and some will have nothing to do with the car park. You lose nothing in asking or appealing.