Boston driver gets £70 Asda parking charge, but says he was in Mablethorpe
A BOSTON man says he has been deterred from using the town's Asda store after receiving a £70 parking charge.
Owen Brown, from Shaw Road, visited the store on two separate occasions on August 31, but a few weeks later, he received a letter from Town & City Parking Ltd accusing him of leaving his vehicle there all day, exceeding the free parking limit.
-
FIGHTING THE FINE: Owen Brown from Boston is fighting a parking fine he received after being accused of leaving his car at the town?s ASDA store all day, when he actually made two separate visits. (Photo: Paul Cato)
That day, he had taken his family on a day trip to Mablethorpe, calling at the store at 10.45am to buy items for a picnic.
After returning home, Mr Brown revisited the store to buy some additional items.
NEED A NEW BOILER OR NEW LUXURY BATHROOM ??? THEN READ OUR...
P&P Plumbing & Heating services
View detailsIF YOUR LOOKING TO REPLACE YOUR BOILER OR BATHROOM, THEN CALL P & P PLUMBING. WE OFFER, A, FULL DESIGN, SUPPLY & INSTALLATION SERVICE. SO TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO READ OUR REVIEWS, & THEN GIVE US A CALL.
Terms: TS & CS APPLY
Contact: 01472 803004
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
He told the Target: "I wondered how I could prove this until I realised on that particular day I had taken my family out on a day trip to Mablethorpe and I had parked in the Seacroft Car Park which requires you to enter your car registration number.
"Fortunately I still had the parking ticket issued on August 31 at 12.32pm thus proving my car could not be parked in two places at the same time.
"How many Asda customers have not been as fortunate as myself and not had anything to prove that their vehicle had not been parked all day?
"It's deterred me from using the store. I can appreciate people do abuse it, but when I have done nothing wrong and receive a fine through the door, it's not on.
"I went to speak to a manager at the Asda store in Boston and they were basically not interested, even though they have a contract with Town & City Parking and should be held accountable for their incompetency as they are, in effect, their employers."
Town & City Parking Ltd, provided Mr Brown with photographs of him entering the store's car park at 10.44am and one exiting at 17.56.
Mr Brown added: "If they had photos of me entering the premises and exiting the premises then they should have had these on both occasions instead of using photos from two separate occasions and then trying to charge me £70 when I had done nothing wrong in the first place other than spend my hard-earned money in their store.
"I now have to prove to someone that I am an innocent victim when someone could either not do their job, or the photos were manipulated so that I incurred this charge of £70."
No one from Town & City Parking Ltd or Asda had responded to the Target's requests for a response on Mr Brown's case at the time we went to press.
Comments
by miked09
Wednesday, October 17 2012, 8:35PM
“tell town and country that you are using the arkell -v- pressdram defence. Google it if you need to... :o)”
by Dailyman
Tuesday, October 16 2012, 8:08PM
“Don't pay them a penny. The only parking fines you should take notice of are Police and Council tickets. They will hassle you for 6 months for payment, threatening you with court etc but they will go away eventually. Just ignore it.”
by Lincolnshep
Tuesday, October 16 2012, 5:33PM
“Asda have employed this bunch of shysters and should be a bit more interested in Mr Brown's problem. It's not good enough to just wash their hands on the matter.”
by elasterry
Tuesday, October 16 2012, 1:26PM
“Town & City are craftily based in Perth, Scotland, so if you get taken to a Court in Scotland, get them to transfer the hearing to Boston County Court, as you are an individual you are able to be heard without a lawyer in the County Court.
That will really irritate T & C., as if it comes to a hearing before the Registrar, they will either have to send somebody down to Boston or get a Boston solicitor to represent them.
Town & City are a subsidiary nowadays of an Australian company that manufactures ANPR camera & other parking equipment!”
by mickeymouse99
Monday, October 15 2012, 7:48PM
“Ill tell you the likelihood of being taken to court. Using FOI requests to the courts, it was discover there were 1.8 million of these unenforceable invoices issued last year. Many stupid people paid up, but 544,000 didnt. There were 849 sets of court papers issued, and all were withdrawn by the PPC's before trial, except 49. Of the 49, 29 were won because they were uncontested. Of the remaining 20, we know 2 were won by the PPC's. The undefended ones could have had the judgement withdrawn and defended.
So your chances of being taken to court by these feckless scam artistes, and losing a defended case are less than 3 in 1.8 million, or 600,000 to 1.”
by Lincoln_Fan
Monday, October 15 2012, 4:34PM
“As I understand it - If he has, in any way, entered into 'discussion' with them he has started on the road to having to prove his case. If he never acknowledged them in any way he's fine.”
by Pete67
Monday, October 15 2012, 4:22PM
“Let them (hopefully), take you to court. Give your proof that you were NOT there all that time, and you should have a very good claim of compensation from them.”
by MrAWG45
Monday, October 15 2012, 3:59PM
“Don't pay, they are very unlikely to take you to court and they probably won't get anything if they do since they are assuming that you agreed to their 'contract'. I had a similar claim after parking in Staples car park in Nottingham when I was visiting my son in Uni Halls near there. I parked after six o/clock when the store was shut and received an official looking parking ticket on my windscreen. This was followed up with a letter a week later saying I now owed £90. I wrote and said that it was impossible for me to comply with the rules which stated that I had to be a customer of Staples because they were closed. They wrote again raising the fine to £140. I ignored it, they told me that they would take me to court and it could cost me over £2000 so why wouldn't I settle now and pay the £250 fine. I ignored that and have never heard from them again and it's been over two years now. They are all dodgy dealers who used to make money ou of clamping and now they try this racket on.”
by SS29252
Monday, October 15 2012, 2:43PM
“Mr Brown does not have to prove his innocence. In order to have any chance of getting him to pay anything the car park company have to go to court and claim damages against him. They're unlikely to do this as they would then have to prove that their loss was 'worth' £70. He should not respond to them.”
by passtheparcel
Monday, October 15 2012, 12:37PM
“http://tinyurl.com/lewaow”