Martin Lewis tonight ITV. speculative invoices

[Xerzes]

I see a lot of posts here from Facebook/CAG/similar social media forum style sites, well meaning but unqualified.

Martin Lewis covered the whole parking fine situation tonight, so if it helps - here's a link from an authority.

Hope it helps -  

The Martin Lewis Money Show Live - ITVX

WWW.ITV.COM

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Martin's back to help you with your money in this BAFTA-nominated show

 

Edited February 20 by Xerzes

[dx100uk]

2 hours ago, Xerzes said:

well meaning but unqualified

which describes your comment to a TEE...

2 hours ago, Xerzes said:

the whole parking fine situation tonight,

it is NOT A FINE.....this is an extremely important point to understand

no-one bar a magistrate in a magistrates criminal court can ever fine anyone for anything.

Private Parking Tickets (speculative invoices) are NOT a criminal matter, merely a speculative contractual Civil matter

hence they can only try a speculative monetary claim via the civil county court system (which is no more a legal powers matter than what any member of Joe Public can do).

Until/unless they do raise a county court claim a CCJ and win, there are not ANY enforcement powers they can undertake other than using a DCA, whom are legally powerless and are not BAILIFFS.

Penalty Charge Notices issued by local authorities etc were decriminalised years ago - meaning they no longer can progress a claim to the magistrates court to enforce, but go directly to legal enforcement via a real BAILIFF themselves.

10'000 of people waste £m's paying private parking companies because they think they are FINES...and the media do not help either.

the more people read the above the less income this shark industry get.

dx

PS the link only works if your IP address shows you living within Southern England 

[FTMDave]

Martin Lewis was one of the people who set up Money Saving Expert - and their site, like ours, takes great pains to point out that the parking companies issue invoices, not fines.

A private company has as much right as me or dx or you to issue a fine - i.e. none.

I haven't seen the programme but I'm damn sure Martin Lewis wasn't so stupid as to talk about non-existent "fines".

I don't know what you mean by "unqualified".  Dx, Honeybee, Brassnecked, LFI and the other long-term Caggers have been here for 18 years dealing with about 22,000 of these cases.  The vast majority don't reach court, and of those that do about 85% are won.  Seems pretty "qualified" to me.

[lookinforinfo]

Did you watch it Xerzes?

[Xerzes]

Apologies, I phrased that badly. I meant "qualified" in the legal sense. Quite correctly this site points out that random people on t'internet can post whatever opinions they like; but seek professional/regulated advice if the issue is THAT important.

I've always liked Martin Lewis from his early days, lot of integrity. I'm surprised establishment hasn't offered him "Sir" yet.

All advice on CAG is clearly well-meaning and well-intentioned, so apologies for any confusion. 

Keep up the good work, guys. 

[honeybee13]

Martin Lewis isn't a lawyer, is he?

[dx100uk]

nope . zero legal training at all.

i cant watch it as in scotland, but ive a feeling it might not all be the correct advice. esp where appealing is concerned. i bet.

MSE and it's various fee earners that offer private advice and court attendance help for a fee behind the scenes will lose £100's if he said dont ever appeal. 

i cant say how i know, but i do, it's a prevalent trick to allow the std appeal advise to happen, then when it goes south a claimform arrives users get bombarded with PM's for anything upto £300 to represent them in court. their current court bundle is some 300 pages long!! 

 

[Xerzes]

4 hours ago, honeybee13 said:

Martin Lewis isn't a lawyer, is he?

No, however he will have the full might of ITV's lawyers and legal team checking and doing due diligence on anything he is about to spout out to millions of people!!! 

 

[AndyOrch]

I'm sure they will, Cag was involved in the filming of a ITV  " Tonight " program with  Julie Etchingham , I was interviewed about how the Debt Collection Industry worked in general and in particular private parking charges. The editors cut a 2 hour segment Interview I gave to nil mins, I think it was when I called private parking charges speculative invoices not fines and debt collectors buying debts for as little as 10p in the £1 it upset the legal team 

 

 

[Xerzes]

Gawd! 2hrs cut to nil?

Gutted! Programme editors are a law unto themselves - *I used to work as a Production Manager and have seen how the editing process works.

However, this obsession on CAG with removing any mention of "FINE" in regards to traffic or parking violations is kind of a bit sad imho.

From Wikipedia: "One typical example of a fine is money paid for violations of traffic or parking violations (UK)"

So when posters use it here it's merely a short hand for saying I got a parking ticket. The "frothing at the mouth" of some people here is verging on the comedic!

Everyone knows what the poster means by "fine" - and in many senses from their point of view it IS indeed a fine - they are being charged a financial penalty for a perceived breaking of rules, just as in a football match a player gets a fine for bad behaviour. 

No biggy, I just find it quite amusing here! 

[AndyOrch]

Yes but the word " Fine "  is more frightening and intimidating to the public hence the brainwash by the media/tv /press ...speculitive invoice does not quite carry that terror or threat 

[Xerzes]

Fair point, yep.

 

[Nicky Boy]

Yes, the idea of hammering home "it's not not a fine, it's an invoice" is to demean and belittle the significance and  reduce the intimidation factor as Andy said.

The level of panic evident in some posts on the forums is quite sad.

[Xerzes]

Just out of interest, when I used to smoke, I got caught by some no-mark plastic plod failed Mall security guard type walking down the high street like he was Clint Eastwood in "Hang 'em High!"

He tried to issue me with a "fine" (his words) for littering. I just walked off and said, "go call the real police if you're that bothered". He tried to grab my arm, and luckily being 6ft 2 and in possession of a very "Paddington Bear hard stare" when needed, I simply advised him to step away!

Was this technically a "fine" or was it too a "speculative invoice" if I'd allowed him to serve me? Baring in mind he's not a court or magistrate?

 

[honeybee13]

That isn't a topic for this thread, Xerzes. You might want to start one about littering problems in the Local Authorities subforum.

HB

[Xerzes]

I disagree, I think it's totally relevant about what IS a fine, and what is a "speculative invoice" - I feel you are dancing semantically on the head of a pin.

Who cares what it's called by posters here? The end result is they've had a notice which wants to fine/tax/take their money for some perceived infringement!

Surely?

 

[dx100uk]

there is a very good thread already here on that subject. 

search littering 

if it's not on private land then sadly it's a legal FPN. they are employed by the council.

thread title uppdated.

dx