Parking fine - anyone had experience of POPLA appeal?

sirch

sirch

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I parked in a private car park in Birmingham a few weeks ago and paid through the app as detailed on the signage. To my surprise a few days later I got a parking fine from some company calling themselves Civil Enforcement. I appealed on the grounds that I had paid and provided a receipt, they have denied my appeal because
"We have no record of a payment made for the above vehicle registration on the day in question. Please be advised that we use Phone and Pay as a payment method."

My options are now to pay the discounted fee or appeal to POPLA and risk having to pay the full fee. The fraudsters at "Civil Enforcement" are keen to point out that POPLA is rigged against appellants and they also point out that they will not participate in Ombudsman schemes.

So has anyone bothered with POPLA and if so how did it go?
 
sirch said:
I parked in a private car park in Birmingham a few weeks ago and paid through the app as detailed on the signage. To my surprise a few days later I got a parking fine from some company calling themselves Civil Enforcement. I appealed on the grounds that I had paid and provided a receipt, they have denied my appeal because
"We have no record of a payment made for the above vehicle registration on the day in question. Please be advised that we use Phone and Pay as a payment method."

My options are now to pay the discounted fee or appeal to POPLA and risk having to pay the full fee. The fraudsters at "Civil Enforcement" are keen to point out that POPLA is rigged against appellants and they also point out that they will not participate in Ombudsman schemes.

So has anyone bothered with POPLA and if so how did it go?
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1/ It's not a fine it's an invoice.

2/ NEVER identify the driver

3/ Do the POPLA appeal but I repeat do not identify the driver

4/ If that fails then tell them you'll see them in court if you have proof that you paid via the app.

I've been telling this bunch of cowboys to f*** off for almost a year and have invoiced them for wasting my time.
 
I surmise you paid based on the instructions on the signage?

If so I suggest you urgently go back and take a photo of the signage.

Why, well did they change the payment method but the signage was not updated? Though based on what you say, just which company did you pay what is on the receipt that they rejected your proof of payment.

PS cynic in me says, was there a scam going on i.e. someone (not the site owners & their appointed parking operator) has placed a fake sign to fraudulently garner payments.
 
I fought similar cowboys for over a year.

Lost my popla appeal

They took me to court but they pulled out just before it went to court.

After over a year of stress, hassle and costs I ‘won’

It didn’t feel like a win and I truly regretted not paying the £60 fine. I can afford the £60 fine quite easily what I couldn’t afford was the year of stress and hassle. That’s what these scammers rely on and yes you can fight it but ask yourself is it worth it, despite ‘fighting and winning’ id urge anyone to pay up because it’s much ‘cheaper’!!!
 
Thanks all
Brazo said:
It didn’t feel like a win and I truly regretted not paying the £60 fine. I can afford the £60 fine quite easily what I couldn’t afford was the year of stress and hassle.
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That's what I'm thinking, a big part of me says it is wrong to pay up because it just encourages these cowboys but it would be a pyrrhic victory
 
sirch said:
Thanks all

That's what I'm thinking, a big part of me says it is wrong to pay up because it just encourages these cowboys but it would be a pyrrhic victory
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It’s a huge scam and there was supposed to be legislation coming in that would have made it very difficult for these cowboys to operate but it’s been appealed (guess by who ;)) and hasn’t as far as I know made it through!

It’s likely you’ll win if you put in time, effort and research like I did, you just have to cost the time spent.
 
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One thing to check is whether there is advertising permission for the signage. If it's over a certain size it needs permission. If there aren't permissions for the signs it can't be retrospective so you can have all their tickets thrown out as they all require signs to be correct.

If they are going to do people with minor infractions then they have to be absolutely squeaky clean.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Is there a way you can contact others who are similarly unfairly being chased, work together?
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Perhaps a "National Car Park Users Association" is needed?

The problem then becomes: who will run it?
 
If you take a look/search through the money saving expert forum - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking

or pepipo - http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?s=a27f87474480cb7b68bf9b72aeb3146c&showforum=60

you may well find other people with issues at the same site and anyways they have been thrown out. If you go to post your case just read the pinned topics as 90% of the first replies guide people to them, as they haven’t read them….


As an aside, are you certain that signage applied to that site, we have a few locations round here that have adjacent sites and people have been caught out going to nearest pay point under a different operator, rather than correct one and some of the Birmingham ones are not the highest quality establishment….

(There have also been reports of fake payment details being added to
signs https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...king-app-scam-motorist-230-taken-account.html bit not sure how common it is).
 
my daughter got stung in a similar way a few years ago
appealing to POPLA made no difference and they ruled in favour of the parking company
the reason why is because my daughter had paid the wrong company for parking
she used the app to pay not knowing there was more than one app she made the mistake of presuming they were all the same
apparently she had paid for parking on some street in cornwall which use the same ID as the car park in bolton where she thought she had paid for

she presented the parking company and POPLA with the receipt to prove purchase but neither was interested because of the mix up with who she paid

end result was to just pay the charge and have done with it
 
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