" Judge quashes £300 parking fine...because it set out to ‘frighten
and intimidate’ driver "
Car park operators could be forced to stop
threatening motorists with huge penalty charges after a landmark court ruling.
In a decision that will be welcomed by many
aggrieved drivers, a judge has ruled that the demands for hundreds of pounds in
penalties which a parking company sent to one woman driver were illegal because
they were too high.
The court was told they were intended to
"frighten or intimidate" her rather than compensate the firm for any lost
income.
The case is expected to have far-reaching
implications for private parking firms.
Labour MP Alan Meale, who has campaigned on
behalf of motorists, said: "This ruling gives hope that people who have had
money taken from them wrongly by parking companies may be able to recover it."
And the woman's solicitor, Martin Lee, said:
"In future, companies that charge these sorts of sums will have them struck out
unless they can prove that they are a proper account of any financial loss.
"The courts have shown that unfairly high bank
charges are a penalty charge and therefore unjustifiable. The same principle
applies here."
In a ground-breaking decision, the judge
quashed a series of £100 demands sent to Victoria Hetherington-Jakeman, who had
allegedly left her car at a shopping centre for more than the permitted two
hours.
She was sued by Excel Parking Services, which
is run by a man once acquitted of demanding money with menaces from the owners
of clamped cars and who is allowed electronic access to the Government's
database of 38million motorists – despite being temporarily barred last year
following scores of complaints about its behaviour.
Ms Hetherington-Jakeman, 60, was sued for
failing to pay three £60 parking tickets which she did not even know she had
been given.
Her visits to the Portland Retail Park near
her home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, took place between September and
November 2006.
But no tickets were left on the windscreen of
her Mercedes and she heard nothing from Excel until the following January when
she was sent a bill for £300, followed by letters from bailiffs threatening to
confiscate her property unless she paid up.
Excel had used a fixed camera to record her
numberplate as she entered and left the site. It then passed the details to the
DVLA, which sent back an email with her name and address.
Mr Lee told Mansfield County Court that the
levy of £100 per offence was an "unlawful penalty clause" intended to "frighten
or intimidate" and therefore unenforceable.
This argument was accepted by District Judge
Wall, who ruled that the fines did not have to be paid.
Last night, Ms Hetherington-Jakeman, who is
head of quality control at a printing firm, said she was relieved her 14-month
battle was over.
"Excel's behaviour has been absolutely
disgraceful throughout. When I tried to contact them – and the only way to do
that was on a 50p-a-minute premium-rate phone line – I got no response. They
said they couldn't discuss the matter.
"They couldn't even get the most basic details
right. First, they said my car was black, then silver. It's white.
"They claimed the initial £60 parking tickets
hadn't arrived because of a hold-up at the Royal Mail, though the Post Office
said that wasn't true.
"It's been very stressful but at least we have
got the judgment we wanted."
Excel, which manages a number of hospital,
retail and station car parks, is run from an office in Sheffield by Simon
Renshaw-Smith, 41, who is also director of a wheel-clamping firm called Captain
Clampit Ltd.
In 1993 he was accused at Sheffield
magistrates' court of demanding £145 with menaces from two drivers whose cars he
had immobilised.
Asked last night about the case, Mr Renshaw-Smith
said: "The accusations against me were dropped. I was acquitted."
Last July, Excel was finally removed from the
"approved" list of organisations allowed electronic access to the DVLA's
database.
It followed complaints from around the country
and the formation of a 100-strong action group in Mansfield made up entirely of
motorists who claimed they had been unfairly treated by Excel.
The move meant that Excel was forced to apply
for personal data by post on a case-by-case basis.
Yet the ban was lifted only three months
later. A DVLA spokesman said inspectors visited the firm and decided it was
using the data "appropriately".
MP Mr Meale said he would demand an
explanation of the decision from Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly.
Martin Bingley, a spokesman for the Mansfield
action group, said: "Excel has an appalling reputation for failing to respond to
appeals and for insisting they are right and the customer wrong."
Excel, which has now lost its contract to run
the Portland car park, said it was "disappointed" by the court ruling in Ms
Hetherington-Jakeman's favour and was considering an appeal.
Source: [ thisislondon ]
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