HELP! Parking nazis taking me to County Court!

Motorcycling
1

Guys, I need some advice.

I have four outstanding parking tickets in my borough (three issued fraudulently, as with a resident’s permit, I’m allowed to park in a P&D bay outside the normal hours, and one allegedly fixed on my bike, when it wasn’t, as I was with my bike).

One I sent my representations in, and got turned down for not having ‘given them enough grounds to allow my appeal’ (my ground having been to point out I’m allowed to park there).

I then ignored them, and ignored the other tickets as well, as I realised there’s no point.

So, a few weeks back, I got two Charge Certificates (not three, as they later claim). I then wrote back, explaining why I should not have to pay any of them.

Today, I got a letter referring to three Charge Certificates, and saying that:

“Now that you have been issued with the Charge Certificate, we are unable to assist you further in this matter. You must now pay the full increased amount of £150, otherwise thisa mount may be registered as a debt at the County Court and a warrant may be issued against you for bailiffs to recover the debt.”

Apparently, the Council has a right to disregard my representations, as they were done after 28 days, as detailed in “Section 66 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 and paragraph 2 (3) of Schedule 6 to that Act”.

So, if it goes to County Court, will I automatically be deemed guilty and have to pay, or is there a hearing, so I could convince a judge, that although I was late, I still am very much in the right, as I can prove the Council’s website shows the hours I’m allowed to park where I was parked. As for the fourth ticket, it’s my word against the parking attendant, one of whom has been proven by the Adjudicator to have lied about fixing the ticket on the vehicle before.

I’m not happy paying £600 for fraudulent and non-issued parking tickets, especially as I’ve been unemployed since August. I just don’t have that kind of money, which is why I bought the resident’s parking permit in the first place. If it comes to that, I’d rather pay that in legal fees to my solicitor than to the Council so they can continue to harass innocent people. I am so ready and willing to take this all the way, I just need to know what’s the first step.

So, guys, where do I stand? Oh, and another problem is that I am not allowed to have County Court judgements against me, for professional reasons.

2

once you appeal they should freeze the charge so if you appealed within the 14 days the max you should pay is £50 (westminster charge) dont know what kensingon and chelsea is…

if u have provided details of your parking permit etc then it should be fine… but they can be real A HoLES about it and the more u protest the more likely you are to win…

they count on the fact that you’ll give up and just pay the charge rather than contesting it.

fight you’re corner girl… and dont let them over run u !!

3

If you have all the information that can back it up against the tickets there is naff all they can do your best bet is to goto your local citizens advice and get some legal help asap good luck

4

Spoke to the adjudicator’s service, and looks like I’m fooked. By not responding to the Council within 14/28 days, I have given up my right to appeal. Whether the council accepts late representations is up to them, but in this case, they chose to ignore them. So, the adjudicator’s service is telling me I have to pay within 14 days or a county court judgement is issued against me. There will be no hearing, just a notice in the post to say I now have to pay £600 + several more hundreds of pounds in bailiff fees.

The annoying thing (apart from the Crazy Frog) is that I explained to the Council why I should not pay any of the tickets. I think I may have been too sarcastic, so they’ve taken a dislike to me.

So, will speak to my lawyer, get him to draft a letter to the council, explaining that (a) none of the tickets were issued correctly, (b) I didn’t follow the 28 day rule, as I was waiting for all the Notices to Owner to come in and then appeal all at once and © I don’t have £600, which the council should know, as they are paying me housing benefit and council tax benefit.

I’ll also write to my local councillor, asking him what they’re doing about APCOA, as they’re still continuing their cowboy act, even after they were exposed by the BBC.

Grrrrr…

5

Yeah, it is the same in Chelsea, I got ticketed there !

I don’t know, I found arguing with those guys ain’t worth it… riding in bus lanes, getting ticketed cos the line isn’t that clear etc… I just touch my toes and pay, take it like a man/bitch !

Here is a cool note that someone left on my ol VFR400 when I first started riding a couple of years back, almost made getting the ticket worth it !.. (was in Soho area… )

6

thats brilliant!!

7

Did you <ahem> by any chance actually make representations within the required time period, that may not, by no fault of yours, have reached the council?

If so, the Royal Mail can issue letters/certificates (quite willingly, Im informed) to confirm that there were problems with the post (if you kick up a stink and let them know what the loss of your letters has caused…) and its possible that the letters were lost? You can then say that you waited, and as you had no response decided to write again…?

If those were your circumstances, you would be asked to fill out a statutory declaration to that effect (available from the court in question), and the matter would be returned to the prosecuting council where it would be brought back to ‘Notice To Owner’ level. And as you can argue that it shouldnt have gone that far in the first place as you made reps as required, you would be entitled to have them look at your representations again. Dont know what kind of time period your tix were issued over, but may be the case for one or two at least? Dont know how that fits in with what you have already told them, but…

Good luck!

J

8

Bad luck Paivi I have a number of friends (me included) who have appealed, and won. Tex, that note is grade-a quality, lol, love it! Isn’t the biking fraternity great?

9

Got a friend in Chelsea that had 24 tickets becouse he ignored them! He was apealing on the grounds that he had the right to park there as it wanst properly marked! He took it to cort and lost his Jaguar 2002 ! He lost becouse he failed to apeal within 14 days giving up his rights! The cost of everything came to his door and it almost matched the price of the car…

10

I agree the fraternity is cool… pity I don’t know anyone from it though !..

Bike2travel, if your mate in Chelsea took 5 mins to check out the Burrought of Chelsea and Westminster website, he would of seen a list of reasons that won’t be considered and the one is unclear road markings… that is what I appealed on but also got declined.

11

They’re not allowing anything! My tickets are for parking in a pay and display bay during the hours a resident is allowed to park there. I explained all this to them, and they still turned my appeal down for not giving them ‘sufficient evidence’!

According to the BBC Whistleblower documentary, the Kensington & Chelsea parking attendants have to issue ten tickets a day to keep their jobs, whether these are upheld or not, doesn’t interest them, as long as they’re issued!

12

Yes… He’s an old bloke that still thinking that he can get his rights only becouse he pays his taxes… (should be like that actually) He didn’t follow and rules and never trusted that it could heppen to him… What can I say???

13

And you know why, because they make a packet out of the tickets!

Check the tickets to make sure that the offence code is correct (i.e. permit related). Take a photo of the sign, a copy of your permit and go lay siege to the parking shop.

There is a BMW in Ovington Square that has now had to put a sign on it because he got so many tickets from wardens who didn’t check properly for a permit.

14

Too late for that now, I missed the deadline.

In any case, the tickets gave the reason as a P&D one, and I wrote in, explaining their own rules,and they still ignored me.

The fourth outstanding one is another P&D one, and I obviously managed to get my representations in on time, as they’re considering it, so they’re actually only after £450. This time I included a print out of their website showing I’m allowed to park in a P&D bay between 17.30 and 09.30, and as the ticket was issued at 17.35, I’m so in the right.

It will be quite interesting to see what excuse they’ll use to disallow my appeal. All that will happen with that is that I will then have to go to the Adjudicator with it.

Pity I have to pay the other fraudulent fines before any of this can happen, so I could show they’re being unreasonable by cancelling one ticket but not the other two P&D ones.

I wonder if I could sue them for something, as I keep getting the tickets when I’ve got a resident’s permit… Hmmm, I pay them £18 a year for a licence to park in a P&D bay, and then they give me a ticket regardless…Trade Descriptions Act? Fraud? Time I spoke to my lawyer!

I’m not taking this lying down, if I have to go down, I’ll go down kicking and screaming. Killing a few parking attendants is not out of the question, either! So, if you read about Chelsea PAs going missing or being found ran over, with scooter tyre marks on them (I’ll reverse a few times just to be on the safe side), you don’t know me and you’ve never read this post. Not that it matters that much, as this post will self-destruct in ten seconds.

15

Have you got a digital camera ?

if so take photo’s of the bay… there is loads of legislation on bays and rules etc etc and if they all aren’t adhered too then all the tickets are null and voice. Even if it’s a pay and display you have to have the lines in, terminated right and a pole in place stating the rules in EVER parking section.

Take some photo’s and post 'em here … lets have a look see

Also ask for the attendents number if you are so behind being defrauded and file a small claims action against him… That’ll shake things up ( and it’s free to do )

16

On the 4th ticket (the one you got when you weren’t there) ask them for a copy of the ticket; it must have the serial number of your tax disc on it. If you weren’t there they won’t have it…

That has happened to a few of the SV guys in Frith St… The wardens write out the tickets but don’t have the balls to put them on the bikes, so you get a letter saying that you owe £100 as you’ve not paid in the 14 days. They asked for proof and they then managed to “lose” the tickets, so no action was taken.

As for your other 3 outstanding tickets, write to the BBC and some national newspapers, even try MCN. The tickets were placed ileagally, so somebody needs to hear about it.

Best of luck.

17

Hi Jelster nice to see you over from the Sv650 site, true what you say, but make sure you let them know in no uncertain terms you are going to Watchdog or what ever program you’ll be writing to.

H