Update; Since reporting them to Consumer Direct and Trading Standards, all references to fines and fixed penalty notices have disappeared from the ICC website.Bunch of chancers..

Twenty minutes is clearly not a reasonable amount of time, but they rely on this so they can try to penalize people for overstaying. If they allowed free parking all day every day then they wouldn't make any money from these joke tickets.You can safely ignore this.

Bear in mind that it can take up to a few months before the police turn up to take a statement. I had a similar situation a few years back. I thought the matter had been closed, but was quite surprised three months later when an officer arrived at my house one evening to take a statement. The complaint was made that I had hit a parked car with considerable force (causing £1300 of damage) and driven off. The officer examined my car and noted the complete lack of any accident damage at all, the matter was referred back to the insurers who refused to pay out as there was no evidence at all that I was involved. A lot of hassle but a good result in the end. Did you really get convicted for drink driving in that situation? They didn't breathalyse you at the roadside so surely they couldn't prove that you were over the limit when you were driving the car.

I'm surprised that the police would be pursuing this, unless they have been told a few porkies by whoever filed the complaint. Failing to stop after an accident would normally be pursued for driving away from a major traffic collision on the road or a hit and run. In cases like this, a minor nudge in a car park with nobody injured they would normally leave it to the insurers to sort out. If the police are pursuing it the next step would be an officer coming to your house to take a statement. All you would need to do is stick to the truth, and say is that while attempting to park, you touched another vehicle, got out and checked and there was no visible damage to either vehicle so you did not feel that leaving your details was necessary, as no accident occured. They will probably ask to inspect your vehicle but obviously there will be nothing of interest there. I suspect it will go no further than this.

Don't worry, Parking Eye don't do court. You may get one or two more "final" notices but that is as far as it will ever go.

Of course, yes. I'd forgotten about that. You'd probably receive an endorsement on your license similar to an SP30, If I remember rightly an IN10 (things have moved on a bit since I used to work in insurance claims).

Another parking company this week tried to take out a Norwich Pharmacal Order against a vehicle keeper. The order was denied and the case was struck out. I wouldn't worry too much about it, it's all bluff.

Are the court papers stamped and official? Have you called the court to check that the case reference number given is genuine, since some PPCs have been known to send unstamped court papers out in the past to scare people. If possible, could you scan the forms including the "particulars of claim" so we can see what they've put down? I would certainly contact the store manager of the local Asda and threaten to tell the whole story to the local paper and also The Sun. Believe me, that's the kind of publicity they won't want.

Bhuna76, do you have your own insurance policy (i.e for another vehicle) that you are the main driver on? If so, you may have the DOC (driving other cars) clause on the policy which allows you to drive any car with the owner's permission. If not, I'm afraid you may well be charged with driving without insurance and have to answer the case in court. The likely outcome is a fine and 6 points on your license (IN10). The fact that your partner was unwell and asked you to driver the car for her might help to mitigate the sentence a bit but I think it's unlikely that you would get let off for that reason.

Hi, is this a council ticket or was it issued by a private firm?

If a parking company has won multiple victories in a single day I'm sure we would have heard about it by now. What does your insurance policy have to do with a private parking matter? I'm the only person insured on my policy, yet my parents, my fiancee and her family are all able to drive my car, since their insurance policies also cover them to drive other vehicles with the owners permission. Any judge with half a brain cell would know that. I call BS and suspect you are nothing more than a PPC employee trying to stir things up but you really will have to try harder than that. If you are genuinely telling the truth, as DBC posted above, please provide us with the case details so we can check them out. I suspect this won't be forthcoming though.

I thought all county court cases were open hearings, unless it's a sensitive issue dealing with family matters such as a child custody hearing.

Just a quick update on this one. I emailed ICC regarding the misleading and quite possibly unlawful use of wording on their website, falsely implying that they carry special powers which enable them to issue fines and fixed penalty notices. I've also reported them to Consumer Direct who have responded today to say that they have forwarded my complaint to Trading Standards. Not expecting them to get shut down or anything, but it's nice to make life difficult for these people.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3307696

Exactly, something doesn't smell right about that thread.

What utter rubbish. Cases involving private parking invoices would never go all the way to the high court. If Excel had started winning cases in court we would have heard about it by now. In civil cases, it's 100% up to the claimant to produce evidence of his claim. It seems a bit unfair to produce an NPO to force the defendant to reveal the information. The claimant should have all the evidence necessary before the case is heard. Even if the NPO was granted, all you would need to do is categorically state that you were not the driver, and you do not know who was on the day in question, as several other drivers use your car. You could name the other potential drivers, but what are they going to do, drag each one into court and interview them under oath? Small claims court doesn't work like that.

TPS and Debt Recovery Plus are well known, you can safely continue to ignore them.

Hi, I'm guessing this is from a private company rather than a council or local authority. Could you confirm the name of the company?

I would expect that the flight details and copy of the parking confirmation would be sufficient grounds to appeal. I would put the appeal in writing though, emails have a tendency to go ignored. If necessary, I'm sure you could get the airport parking company to write a statement on their company letterheaded paper to confirm that the car was in their posession in a secure car park for the duration of your trip. It's probable that they have simply mixed up the registration number somehow, or it may be the case that your plates have been cloned at some stage. You will need to wait and see what they come back with. Keep us posted. CD

Only when you read that do you start to realise just how utterly rubbish their terms and conditions actually are. It might as well say;

Honeybee is right. They cannot simply send bailiffs to your property, and they never do. It's a commonly used bluff tactic from these companies to scare people into paying up. Only a court could order bailiff action but for that to happen, they would need to go through the courts system first. They are acting as debt collectors which have absolutely no special powers at all. Don't confuse the two.

Personally I would love to know too. We can only give the advice, it's up to the OP whether to take it or not. If I was in the position of being illegally clamped on private land and forced to pay a massively inflated fee to get my property back, I would pursue it through the courts without hesitation. It's better than just sitting back pining over the lost money.

Obviously the customer wouldn't be able to return it on the grounds that it didn't come in a box, as this was made clear at the time of sale but any other fault should still be covered by a store warranty. Unfortunately large retailers spend far too long regurgitating company values and "leadership" techniques when training managers, and nowhere near enough time on important stuff like consumer law.

How in hell did they come up with a figure of £375? That's way beyond a "reasonable fee" as defined in Vine vs Waltham Forest. I'll bet a pound to a pinch of s**t that they've added on a charge for a tow truck that they've apparently called as well. More illegal charges. They will never refund your money. Remember you are dealing with bottom feeders and parasites, not reasonable people. Do exactly what crem said, write a letter and send it to both the clamping company and the land owner. Mark it as "notice of intended legal action", state that you had a valid visitors permit and can provide picture proof. You showed it to the clamper but he still refused to remove the clamp without payment which is extortion, plain and simple. Give them 7 days to respond before filing a county court claim online against both the clampers AND the land owners. We can help you through this if necessary, it's dead easy and doesn't take very long.

The parking firm will almost certainly not give you your money back. You could theoretically go down the court route but it would take months, and even if you did win, the most you'd get out of it would be your £3 back. Probably not worth the hassle. Just chalk it up to experience I guess.