A Very Expensive Greggs

[Jacob100]

We were passing through Leeds last month and pulled into this Greggs on Gelderd Rd for a snack.

Now I've been before and I know you're not supposed to park outside of designated bays, but we were tired and hungry and there were vans shuffling in and out of the narrow car park so Emma jumped out while I left the car running next to the Biffa bins. Three minutes later we were on our way.

Total bill for our two teas and chicken bakes now stands at £100.

As I understand it this claim is to be regarded as an invoice from a private company rather than a formal PCN.

What is the best course of action with these bandits?

 

[Rob Cowell]

We were passing through Leeds last month and pulled into this Greggs on Gelderd Rd for a snack.

View attachment 155460

Now I've been before and I know you're not supposed to park outside of designated bays, but we were tired and hungry and there were vans shuffling in and out of the narrow car park so Emma jumped out while I left the car running next to the Biffa bins. Three minutes later we were on our way.

Total bill for our two teas and chicken bakes now stands at £100.

As I understand it this claim is to be regarded as an invoice from a private company rather than a formal PCN.

What is the best course of action with these bandits?

Should be an appeals contact on the ticket. Just write to them and tell them they made a mistake, you were waiting for a couple of vans to complete their manoeuvres before safely parking.

 

[Jacob100]

Thanks - I'll give that a try. I'm normally quite good at avoiding this sort of thing so it really annoyed me.

 

[moggy1968]

I would just ignore it, any correspondence on your part can be taken as acceptence of the fine. I had one at a hospital car park. They kept sending increasingly threatening letters but they stopped eventually.

 

[joinerman]

What Moggy says ignore it, if you contact them you have entered into a contract & your then doomed to pay.
What you have is an invoice not a fine.

 

[Shayne]

The one i got had an email address on it so i wrote

"I will not be paying this fine under any circumstances and i will be happy to explain to a judge why not , so i shall see you in court"

I'm still waiting for a reply i don't know how many years later .

 

[David]

The one i got had an email address on it so i wrote

"I will not be paying this fine under any circumstances and i will be happy to explain to a judge why not , so i shall see you in court"

I'm still waiting for a reply i don't know how many years later .

I did just the same with Parking Eye last o October , and not heard a thing since

 

[Jake the Peg]

I replied to them stating that although I am the registered keeper, I wasn’t in fact the driver, and have no obligation to tell you who was. As I was not the driver I am not liable to pay, and consider this the end to the matter.

Cheers

 

[Rob Cowell]

Just as points of law. The keeper of the vehicle is liable for fines or charges if the driver cannot be determined (1988 Road Traffic Act sections 3 and 172). This only applies to public places but there is plenty of case law showing that a public place has a much wider remit than you might imagine.

A contract needs an offer and acceptance where acceptance is "... a final and unqualified expression of assent to the terms of an offer" [1]. Even if suggesting you owe me money is an offer not to prosecute further, which I'm not sure it is, contacting someone who says you owe them money is not an unqualified expression of assent.

Individual private parking operators can choose how they pursue matters, but those are the legal positions as far as I am aware.

Very interested to see contradictory precedent.

[1] http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/A/Acceptance.aspx

 

[guruvetim]

Just ignore it.

I had a similar "invoice" from Asda's in Leighton a few years back. I ignored it and after a few months and a few letters threatening increasing fine they stopped sending them..

 

[GeekOKent]

My understanding is that you can ignore it till they set a court date. When that happens it's a bit of a problem, since you are required to travel to where the company is (since they use a local court ).

Also unlike in the past, ccj are no longer removed from your credit report anymore.

 

[Jacob100]

Thanks for your responses. I will carry on ignoring them for now.

 

[TonyP]

If you have not already found this site, it's worth taking a look as I believe the law changed few years ago and ignoring may not be the best approach...
http://forums.pepipoo.com/

 

[chrisgsutton]

Hi Jacob100 Iv just received the exact same letter from parking outside this Gregg's over Christmas, wondered if you ended up paying your fine and what happened ect? Cheers

 

[karl2000]

That's right the law changed - a few years back I totallly ignored one of them and they eventually gave up, but I think now is a different story

 

[hopeless wanderer]

Accept the vehicle was yours and that the driver was in fact a foreign resident. Ask the friendly foreign resident to accept it was them who committed the violation and attach a copy of their foreign passport/driving licence in the correspondence and then say goodbye to the ticket.
English law only applies to UK residents and no civil legal action can be taken against non citizens.
I'd like to see them try to give a CCJ to an Egyptian/Armenian/Botswanan who doesn't live here.

 

[karl2000]

Chris Huhne

 

[Shayne]

Mine was here ,on a Sunday morning with only 2 other cars ,my tyre was touching the white line .

Times what you see by 6 and you will have a rough idea of how much parking space there is in the immediate area

I seen the muppet issuing tickets in the next carpark as i drove out and he has no idea how lucky he is that i had the grandkids in the car and the mrs to remind me of the fact

 

[karl2000]

Shoulda gone to specsavers