Paid Parking Company

[stanwilcock]

Could anyone please help with the following?
My son was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital where there was a Paid Parking Company governed car park. The pricing structure was £2 for 1hrs and £3 for 2 hrs. My son paid the £3, entered his details and thought nothing more. A week later he is sent a parking charge notice for £100 because he had apparently gone over his alloted time. The PCN stated time in car park 1hr 29 mins.
Not a problem thought my son as he had paid the £3 for 2 hrs, they had obviously made a mistake. He managed to find the parking ticket issued by the machine and was a little confused as it stated on it that he had paid £2.50! He swears blind that he inserted 2x £1coins and 2x 50p coins and that maybe the machine just ate one of the 50p coins and it didnt register. Why would anyone pay £2.50 as it was either £2 for an hour or £3 for 2 hours and he knew he would be more than an hour.
It has since gone to court and the "fine" is now a lot more and he has just informed me about this. I am sure that if presented to a magistrate or similar that Paid Parking Company wouldnt have a case, would they? And theoretically the £2.50 "paid" would cover the 1hr and 29minutes he was in the carpark so how are they out of pocket?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance

[hc4361]

You say it has since gone to court? Surely he stated his case before the magistrate then?

[bednobs]

you say it has been to court - what was the outcome?

[bednobs]

sorry, didnt see yours HC

[Old_Geezer]

I'm no legal eagle but IMO. Maybe one of the 50p was rejected and it wasn't noticed. In any case I'd expect the responsibility to check the details would be with the parker. Since it is £2 or £3, a £2:50 counts as £2 so that was 1 hour. And a 50p gift to the parking company.

The court decision seems to confirm this. Good luck with any appeal though as I see your viewpoint; but my suspicion is that one gets caught out at various times in life. Sometimes one simply has to take it on the chin and put it in the past. But as I say, good luck with it all.

[AB Editor]

Please don't mention the name of the company - AnswerBank automatically edits this out of posts for legal reasons.

[anthro-nerd]

It's tricky. I paid for parking at the seaside once, but forgot to put the ticket in my car!! I put it in my handbag... what an idiot. I was given a £50 fine, and I paid it. I could have fought it, as I would have been seen on CCTV paying for the ticket, I remember seeing the cameras and thinking, 'ooo a safe car park!', but I just paid the fine seen as it was ultimately my own stupidity, despite actually paying for ticket. It's a tricky situation but in my opinion, down to the ticket buyer to check and display the ticket. I do wish you the best of luck though!

[stanwilcock]

The company took it to court. He didnt even know. He did try to explain the situation via thier online forms but they dismissed it.
Also yes he should have checked his ticket but at the time he was under a lot of stress having to rush his wife into hospital.
Surely there must be some safegaurds against the vulnerable being treated this way.

[bednobs]

it usually doesnt get to court without the company sending lots of requests/letters to the debtor.
it seems more likely that your son perhaps ignored the requests/letters, as he ignored the first request.
unfortunately the "safeguard" is that the company send invoices, and a grown man who can drive and make babies doesnt seem vulnerable (in the sense i understand the word) and should have addressed this when he got the first request.
I hope that it can be sorted, but sadly i think if the court has issued a fine (or ccj?)already the matter is over and done with and all that remains is for him to pay it

[sinderella]

it is legalised robbery