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    • Thank-you dx, What you have written is certainly helpful to my understanding. The only thing I would say, what I found to be most worrying and led me to start this discussion is, I believe the judge did not merely admonish the defendant in the case in question, but used that point to dismiss the case in the claimants favour. To me, and I don't have your experience or knowledge, that is somewhat troubling. Again, the caveat being that we don't know exactly what went on but I think we can infer the reason for the judgement. Thank-you for your feedback. EDIT: I guess that the case I refer to is only one case and it may never happen again and the strategy not to appeal is still the best strategy even in this event, but I really did find the outcome of that case, not only extremely annoying but also worrying. Let's hope other judges are not quite so narrow minded and don't get fixated on one particular issue as FTMDave alluded to.
    • Indians, traditionally known as avid savers, are now stashing away less money and borrowing more.View the full article
    • the claimant in their WS can refer to whatever previous CC judgements they like, as we do in our WS's, but CC judgements do not set a legal precedence. however, they do often refer to judgements like Bevis, those cases do created a precedence as they were court of appeal rulings. as for if the defendant, prior to the raising of a claim, dobbed themselves in as the driver in writing during any appeal to the PPC, i don't think we've seen one case whereby the claimant referred to such in their WS.. ?? but they certainly typically include said appeal letters in their exhibits. i certainly dont think it's a good idea to 'remind' them of such at the defence stage, even if the defendant did admit such in a written appeal. i would further go as far to say, that could be even more damaging to the whole case than a judge admonishing a defendant for not appealing to the PPC in the 1st place. it sort of blows the defendant out the water before the judge reads anything else. dx  
    • Hi LFI, Your knowledge in this area is greater than I could possibly hope to have and as such I appreciate your feedback. I'm not sure that I agree the reason why a barrister would say that, only to get new customers, I'm sure he must have had professional experience in this area that qualifies him to make that point. 🙂 In your point 1 you mention: 1] there is a real danger that some part of the appeal will point out that the person appealing [the keeper ] is also the driver. I understand the point you are making but I was referring to when the keeper is also the driver and admits it later and only in this circumstance, but I understand what you are saying. I take on board the issues you raise in point 2. Is it possible that a PPC (claimant) could refer back to the case above as proof that the motorist should have appealed, like they refer back to other cases? Thanks once again for the feedback.
    • Well barristers would say that in the hope that motorists would go to them for advice -obviously paid advice.  The problem with appealing is at least twofold. 1] there is a real danger that some part of the appeal will point out that the person appealing [the keeper ] is also the driver.  And in a lot of cases the last thing the keeper wants when they are also the driver is that the parking company knows that. It makes it so much easier for them as the majority  of Judges do not accept that the keeper and the driver are the same person for obvious reasons. Often they are not the same person especially when it is a family car where the husband, wife and children are all insured to drive the same car. On top of that  just about every person who has a valid insurance policy is able to drive another person's vehicle. So there are many possibilities and it should be up to the parking company to prove it to some extent.  Most parking company's do not accept appeals under virtually any circumstances. But insist that you carry on and appeal to their so called impartial jury who are often anything but impartial. By turning down that second appeal, many motorists pay up because they don't know enough about PoFA to argue with those decisions which brings us to the second problem. 2] the major parking companies are mostly unscrupulous, lying cheating scrotes. So when you appeal and your reasons look as if they would have merit in Court, they then go about  concocting a Witness Statement to debunk that challenge. We feel that by leaving what we think are the strongest arguments to our Member's Witness Statements, it leaves insufficient time to be thwarted with their lies etc. And when the motorists defence is good enough to win, it should win regardless of when it is first produced.   
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Civil Parking Charge Notice From Athena - Advice Sought **CANCELLED**


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I’ve noticed that some kind folks on this site have provided advice to people who have been sent extortionate parking charge notices.

I have received such a notice,

and will be very grateful for any advice on whether I am likely to be able to avoid the charge,

and how to go about doing so.

The specifics relating to my case are:

The car park attached to our local Lidl store used to allow one hour’s free parking

(I believe ostensibly for customers, but actually used by non-customers also);

this allowance has evidently been changed without my noticing it as I have received from Athena ANPR Ltd.

a “Civil Parking Charge Notice” demanding £90,

subject to a discount of £45 if paid within 14 days.

I parked in the car park on 16th September (but did not purchase anything in Lidl),

and received the notice today, 20th September.

I returned to the car park today to check signage (picture attached);

the period of free parking for non-customers is now 10 minutes,

which period I exceeded by 21 minutes.

While I accept I was daft to miss the new signs,

and am quite happy to pay reasonable parking charges,

I believe that this kind of charge is completely unacceptable.

My question for anyone knowledgeable on this subject is whether I have a good case to fight this charge

as a non-customer of Lidl, and if so, how best to go about it.

Many thanks in advance to anyone prepared to help.

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so this was an anpr capture then?

 

 

dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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I’ve noticed that some kind folks on this site have provided advice to people who have been sent extortionate parking charge notices.

I have received such a notice,

and will be very grateful for any advice on whether I am likely to be able to avoid the charge,

and how to go about doing so.

The specifics relating to my case are:

The car park attached to our local Lidl store used to allow one hour’s free parking

(I believe ostensibly for customers, but actually used by non-customers also);

this allowance has evidently been changed without my noticing it as I have received from Athena ANPR Ltd.

a “Civil Parking Charge Notice” demanding £90,

subject to a discount of £45 if paid within 14 days.

I parked in the car park on 16th September (but did not purchase anything in Lidl),

and received the notice today, 20th September.

I returned to the car park today to check signage (picture attached);

the period of free parking for non-customers is now 10 minutes,

which period I exceeded by 21 minutes.

While I accept I was daft to miss the new signs,

and am quite happy to pay reasonable parking charges,

I believe that this kind of charge is completely unacceptable.

My question for anyone knowledgeable on this subject is whether I have a good case to fight this charge

as a non-customer of Lidl, and if so, how best to go about it.

Many thanks in advance to anyone prepared to help.

 

 

This charge is a penalty disguised (badly) as a contractual charge.

 

 

As a non customer of Lidl, you can park in the car park for £45. That is what the sign states. But how do you pay the sum after reading the sign?

 

 

A simple appeal to Athena should be sent.

 

 

' As registered keeper of vehicle reg. XXX XXX, I am appealing parking charge notice no. XXXXXXX.

 

 

I believe this charge to be an illegal penalty charge and consequently I am not liable to pay this sum.

 

 

Please cancel this charge forthwith , or alternatively issue me with a validation code for the independent appeals service POPLA.

 

 

This appeal has been sent with proof of postage. '

 

 

Come back with Athena's response.

 

 

You will not have to pay any money to anybody regarding this invoice....

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This charge is a penalty disguised (badly) as a contractual charge.

 

 

As a non customer of Lidl, you can park in the car park for £45. That is what the sign states. But how do you pay the sum after reading the sign?

 

 

A simple appeal to Athena should be sent.

 

 

' As registered keeper of vehicle reg. XXX XXX, I am appealing parking charge notice no. XXXXXXX.

 

 

I believe this charge to be an illegal penalty charge and consequently I am not liable to pay this sum.

 

 

Please cancel this charge forthwith , or alternatively issue me with a validation code for the independent appeals service POPLA.

 

 

This appeal has been sent with proof of postage. '

 

 

Come back with Athena's response.

 

 

You will not have to pay any money to anybody regarding this invoice....

 

OK, I'll do as you say and report back.

 

Many thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update...

 

 

Appeal sent exactly as advised, with proof of posting, on 22nd September.

 

 

I've had no reply so far.

 

 

Am I right in thinking they are in breach of their Association's code of practice as they have not replied to my appeal within 14 days?

 

 

Is there any further action I need to take?

 

 

Many thanks for any advice.

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Update...

 

 

Appeal sent exactly as advised, with proof of posting, on 22nd September.

 

 

I've had no reply so far.

 

 

Am I right in thinking they are in breach of their Association's code of practice as they have not replied to my appeal within 14 days?

 

 

Is there any further action I need to take?

 

 

Many thanks for any advice.

 

According to the BPA code of practice that Athena must follow, they have thirty five days to respond to the appeal ,after notifying you within fourteen days that they are addressing your appeal.

 

I suspect you will either get a reminder to pay letter from Athena, or a debt recovery letter saying you now ' owe ' considerably more money...

 

They will say they have not received an appeal( I'm guessing ), but you have proof of postage so are covered.

 

Do no more until you receive something else in the post.

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If they fail to follow the protocols then they cannot pursue the keeper of the vehicle, only the driver, who is unknown to them and it is their responsibility to identify who that was.

I suspect that you will get a threatogram or two from a DCA and then after a while it will go quiet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've today received an "Overdue Reminder" from Athena; please see the uploaded copy with my details removed.

 

 

In it they say they have rejected my appeal, and have previously sent me a letter explaining why - no such letter was received by me.

 

 

As you will see, there is no mention in this document of a POPLA number or appeal.

 

 

Should I reply to this stating that I haven't received their previous letter, and referring to POPLA?

 

 

I will be very grateful for advice on the next step I should take.

 

 

Many thanks in advance.

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OK, I'll do as you say and ignore it.

 

 

When I saw the reference in this "reminder" to their having already sent me a letter rejecting my appeal, I did wonder whether they are trying to prevent me appealing to POPLA within the timescale to do so, and was tempted to contact them for a copy of said letter. I resisted the temptation to contact them - I imagine it would, in any event, be for them to prove they sent it.

 

 

I'll report back with anything further I receive from them.

 

 

Many thanks again for your advice and support.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I've received a further notice from Athena - a "Final Demand" - please see attached copy with my details removed.

 

 

Should I respond to this, or just ignore it in the same way as the previous "Reminder"?

 

 

Many thanks in advance for advice.

Edited by misread
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I wrote to Athena stating that they failed to acknowledge or reply to my appeal within 14 days, have not replied subsequently to my appeal, and are thus beyond the time allowed to pursue me as keeper of the vehicle. I stated that I'll consider further communication as harassment, worded as advised above.

 

They have now sent me a rejection of my appeal, dated 26 September (see attachment), in an envelope franked/postmarked 4 December!

 

They have also amended the due date to 26 December for the full charge, and the due date for a reduced charge to 12 December (original notice 18 September, demanding 50% payment within 14 days).

 

They have provided a POPLA code on this letter.

 

I'll be grateful for advice on whether I should write to them again reiterating that they are out of time, and pointing out the inconsistencies in their correspondence and dates, or should I simply ignore this latest letter?

 

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Edited by misread
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Check when the code was generated here;

 

 

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/popla-code-checker/

 

 

Now as you know, there is no keeper liability as they are out of time. And they know as well. The letter only mentions the drivers responsibility...

As RK you could ignore it, but if the POPLA code is valid, then you could cost them money by appealing . And win easily.

It is up to you.

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Many thanks for the response.

 

 

I've checked when the code was generated - 26 September according to the website linked in your message (and also now appeal-expired according to the message displayed with the date).

 

 

Does this mean that they did raise a POPLA code on 26 September, even though they didn't reply to me at that time, or can they somehow generate or fake a back-dated number?

 

 

They are effectively admitting they didn't reply in the timescale (reply sent 4 December, changed due dates), and are now apparently supplying me with a POPLA code I may not be able to use, anyway.

 

 

If I do submit an appeal to POPLA, I will have to explain that it is time-expired due to Athena not following the rules. I wonder whether POPLA would then go ahead considering the appeal (based on the charge being an illegal penalty charge) knowing that Athena are out of time anyway.

 

 

I'll be very grateful for further advice.

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the number is genuine but some companies have a problem sending them out in time. It is suspected that this is done as they a) dont want to spend £27 on an appeal and b) they know they are likely to lose a properly constructed appeal anyway so the £27 will be doubly wasted.

A complaint to POPLA and copied to the BPA will probably get you a new appeal code if you want to go down that route but yu can choose to ignore them. the only problem with ignoring them is proving they sat on the code until it expired should they want to go down the court route so get your complaint in. I hope you have the previous correspondence and envelope for this latest dud. This will doom them so photocopy it in your complaint.

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Complaint to POPLA (including copy of envelope), and copy to BPA prepared - I'll mail them with proof of posting tomorrow.

 

 

I'll report back when/if I receive replies or further correspondence from Athena.

 

 

Many thanks for advice.

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good, you will only get a perfunctory reply but I bet you get a letter fro Athena saying that they have reconsidered and are now issuing a new POPLA code. Despite the fact they have wilfully ignored the law, their trade association wont sanction them but allow them another chance to rob you. Good isnt it?

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A POPLA code can be generated at anytime, so there is no excuse for it not to be correctly dated for the newly sent correspondence.

 

You may well get a ' goodwill ' gesture of cancellation of the charge to save themselves time, ,trouble and money...

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  • 1 month later...

Update/Charge cancelled

 

I received a reply from POPLA (looks like a standard reply) stating that my letter cannot be registered as an appeal and that I should contact the operator to obtain a verification code. On the face of it, this is an absurd and illogical reply as my letter to them is a complaint about being denied the ability to appeal by the operator providing an out-of-date code long after the time allowed to do so. Having said that, it ties in with the information on their website that refers only to the appeals process and complaints against the POPLA adjudicator.

 

The BPA did “investigate” and replied to me stating that the operator had sent their rejection on the 26th September, and that they “re-sent” their letter on receipt of my letter telling them they are time-expired. Yeah, right!

 

The BPA also informed me that the operator has cancelled the charge “in view of the inconvenience caused”.

 

I have duly received the confirmation of cancellation from Athena.

 

Many thanks for all the advice and support.

I will, of course, be making a donation to this excellent website.

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