"Sorry, but you quite clearly stated, in your post number 59 , that this IS a fine." Yes I did and I have not contradicted that. It IS a fine. It is an unjust fine that is not legally enforceable, but it is a fine nonetheless. "There is no OFFENCE commited." But there is the perception of an offence by the company, therefore they feel justified in pursuing the matter and forcing people to point out that there was no offence "By using the words FINE and OFFENCE then SSS are going against the BPA code of practice that they have stated they adhere to." Show me where I said SSS used these terms. Perhaps you might want to read my words before arguing with what you think I said. "You posting what you have is spreading confusion to people that come on here for advice and it is not helping them." I would suggest that your constant nit picking and attempts to show off while not recounting any real experiences are the source of any confusion that might arise. You only developed a problem with what I was saying after I was not as grovellingly grateful for your smug comments as you felt I should have been. I have attempted to make myself clear when you have expressed misgivings about my choice of words but you have still persisted in vindictively trying find fault in every post I have made.

I fear it is you that have not been reading what I have said: May I draw your attention to the words "...these fines are unjust and have no legal standing..." "No offence has been commited. NO private company can impose a fine or penalty on any private individual." As far as THEY are concerned an offence HAS been committed and they ARE fee to impose a fine on an individual. Saying otherwise is like telling a mugger they have no right to punch you while you are on the ground being beaten up: they may not have a right but they still do it. It is up to the individual to stand up to them, and as I have repeatedly said I hope that people will. You seem to be labouring under the illusion that I think this is all ok; that I think it's fine for these companies to do what they are doing. I do not think this. I do not think they have any moral or legal right to impose fines. I do not think people should pay them if they do try to enforce them. I have been as clear as I can be. I have nothing more to say on this subject.

I don't know what it is you want at this point. What exactly have I said that has earned this wrath? I mean, caps lock... settle down now. Call it what you want but this IS a fine. From a couple of dictionaries: - A sum of money required to be paid as a penalty for an offense. - Punish (someone) by making them pay a sum of money, typically as a penalty for breaking the law. That these fines are unjust and have no legal standing is besides the point. We are talking about a company who claim you have committed an offense by parking where they say you cannot and are attempting to charge you for it. You can call it a speculative invoice if you want, but it is a fine.

Yep, and I wish we had stood our ground. I hope others do. As I said before, I'm almost tempted to go and park there again just to have my day in court.

OK, they MAY take you to court. But if people ignore the fine in the hope that it'll go away they should be prepared for the eventuality that it won't, leaving them to either pay a higher amount or have their day in court.

Nope. We didn't look at them until afterwards and that made us feel even more stupid given how questionable they are. As I have repeatedly said - we were under no illusions about right or wrong - it was simply fear of court that encouraged my wife to pay up.

I never claimed anything of the sort. I am attempting to make it clear that going to court is a very real possibility, I have never stated that all cases go to court, simply that SSS do go to court and to hope that they won't is naive.

It's no bother, really. I fear you are not hearing me. I know all the facts; I researched extensively, I read posts this and many other forums, I looked at court cases and I know my wife was not liable. But despite knowing this when faced with going to court my wife got scared and paid up anyway. I also know we wasted £160 and I feel sick when I think of it so apologies if I don't thank you for rubbing it in. Let me be clear: I am not recommending that people pay up; the last thing I want is for these parasites to get any more money. I am warning others that SSS WILL take them to court. I wish my wife had stood her ground and had her day in court. She wishes she'd just paid a much smaller amount at the start and not had the headaches that followed.

The defence was that my wife was not driving. At the time of the mediation SSS said they were going to bring her to court as the registered owner of the car anyway. I offered to own up but SSS said it was too late and they were intent on bringing my wife to court. We did read copious amounts of advice on forums like this and knew we were in the right, but, as I've said, my wife is one of many people who would rather pay up than go to court. This is why my advice to people with notices from these people is either pay up in the first place when it's less money or be prepared to go to court. I'm tempted to go and park in the same place again just to have a day in court with these ****ers.

"Idealy , what you should have done is ignored them totaly from the start." We did ignore them from the start. When they threatened court action we felt we should respond. Perhaps we should have ignored them then too but given the number of copied court documents on their website showing automatic victories over people who decided to ignore everything I'm not sure this would have been a good idea. "Unless they actualy own the land in question or have a vested interest in the land they can not even bring a case to court." I don't know what their vested interest in the land is but the were very much going to take my wife to court. We have a number of court documents to that effect. Perhaps they are convincing forgeries and the court mediator was actually someone from SSS acting... Telling people that these cases will not go to court is both factually incorrect and extremely unhelpful for someone unsure of what course of action to take. They will absolutely go to court. "Why did you pay them anything?? As your wife was not the driver she did not enter into any contract with them and therefore owed them NOTHING." My wife was scared of going to court. Simple as that. I was furious that she did, but to be fair it's easy to spout fighting talk on an online forum and another thing entirely to actually have to go to court. When it came down to it, when she actually imagined herself in court having to defend herself, she realised she was scared and she was willing to pay not to have to go through that. I was livid that she backed down when everything we'd read suggested SSS had not a leg to stand on, but she was just petrified of going to court. "Your wife has been well and truly done over by these people." You are truly the king of insight "You have just wasted £160 for nothing. If you like giving that ammount of money away can i have some please £160 would be nice." Thanks. I wasn't feeling quite annoyed enough by this whole situation, I just needed a smug, gloating stranger to rub it in a bit more. Cheers.

I've recently had dealings with these people for parking in the same place mentioned on this thread - outside a shop in Newhaven. My wife is the named owner of our car so although I was driving the charge came to her. We ignored it at first, but on the second correspondence my wife replied, as per the advice on a number of forums, saying she was not driving the car at the time, wasn't intending on saying who was, so they should cease correspondence. They didn't of course and we received the most appallingly written, badly spelt and grammatically incorrect letter I've ever seen from a professional company. It threatened court action and a raised amount to pay and after a few weeks court documents came. We filled out our defence and returned them straight away. On these documents my wife agreed to mediation to hopefully prevent the case going to court. This process took well over an hour and this is when my wife and I had one of the only arguments we have ever had. With SSS not backing down an inch and the possibility of court looming, my wife caved in and agreed to pay something around £160. Even while paying this they attempted to charge further administration costs of £15 (which they kindly agreed to waive...). If you look at the section on the SSS website where they list recent court cases as a means to frighten people, most of their victories come from people doing what my wife did - caving in and paying up; or not responding to the court documents and SSS winning that way. There are, in 6 pages of court references, only 2 that I could see that actually went to court and lost. There's one there purporting to be a win for SSS which, when you actually look at the documents was a win for the defendant (it's currently bottom of the first page, perhaps I've misread something, if so I welcome anyone putting me right). So my advice in dealing with these people (actually, I think it's just one person) is this: - Think carefully about whether you would really be prepared to go to court. While I would absolutely not urge anyone to do this, if you are not prepared to go to court then you may as well just pay up straight away because they will see it through and might end up paying more. - Don't ignore any court documents that come. - If you feel you have a case and will win, then go to court and win. When you do please post it on every forum you can see so people like my wife don't feel so intimidated about going to court and companies like this one think twice about issuing court documents left, right and centre. Good luck.