'Greedy' firm tried to fine me £200 for not paying for parking within FIVE minutes… I fought them for two years and finally won - here's how
Proper news from Britain - News from Britain you won’t find anywhere else. Not the tosh the big media force-feed you every day!
A parking firm that tried to get £200 out of a motorist after she took more than five minutes to pay for her spot has been left empty handed - after years of fighting.
Angela Haley, 64, had decided against stopping in her usual Derby car park and instead chose to station her car elsewhere after entering from a different route.
Initially she had issues paying due to the machine being out of service on May 4, 2023, but she eventually managed to pay the £3.20 due over the phone before heading into the city for a couple hours of shopping.
Having followed Excel Parking's guidelines she believed all was well, until a PCN (Parking Charge Notice) came through her letter box five months later accusing her of parking without payment.
Steadfast Ms Haley appealed the fine, providing proof including confirmation texts, phone calls to the company, as well as a bank account statement showing she made the payment that day. However, the parking firm denied her request.
She then continued to fight against the PCN via the Independent Appeals Service (IAS), described as 'an alternative dispute resolution service' for tickets handed out by private firms, adamant she had paid the ticket.
Ms Haley continued to show her payments receipts to both IAS and Elms Legal, who previously represented the parking firm, but then the reason for the fine emerged - she had not paid within a five minute window.
She told MailOnline: 'I was in a bit of disbelief, I thought well, I know I would never not pay for parking. It's just not something I'd do.
'I kept getting letters from them, and I said look here's my bank statement.
'I didn't have a physical ticket because the normal routes of payment, which would have been just to tap my debit card, wasn't an option on the day.'
'I kept getting legal letters, and then when I found the receipt on my phone, and emailed them a copy, they said, "Oh, no, that they still want to pursue".
'But now then it was because they claimed I didn't pay within their time period, and I just said, I'm not paying. I've paid once I've. I'm not paying again.'
She added: 'It stressed me out to the point where every time any sort of official envelope addressed to me came through the door.
'But I was also going to fight tooth and nail - I was determined I wasn't paying it. There was no way I was backing down from this.'
The legal firm then offered her a reduced fine of around £200, whilst also giving her the option to pay in monthly instalments of £17.
'I didn't even realise it was that much anyway, so they could offer me whatever they liked. I wasn't not paying it,' she added.
'I just kept writing every time I got a threatening letter I just wrote back and said, "Don't write to me anymore. Just take me to court".'
Eventually a small claims court date was set in Sheffield, around 75 miles away from Ms Haley's home. This combined with clashing events meant she could not attend in person.
However she did send her court bundle, which included documents alleging her innocence, and she eventually emerged victorious.
And after a year of battling Excel Parking sent a letter to confirm they were discontinuing the claim.
'You only have to look at Trustpilot and Google Reviews to realise how many people this company is pursuing for fines,' Ms Haley said.
'I'm lucky because I'm retired. So I've got loads of time in my hands.
'But I think if I'd have been still working and I used to have a stressful job, I'd have just paid it because I'd have been so stressed out.
'I think that's what a lot of people do They terrorise people into thinking they have to pay this money.
She added: I could have afforded to pay it, it was never about the money it was about the principle.
'It was the fact that I was able to prove that their paperwork was not relevant to the date I parked that was what really keeping me going.'
Recalling the moment she received the letter from the firm, notifying her they were dropping the issue, she said: 'Obviously I was relieved. But there's no we do apologise for any upset or inconvenience.'
'I do feel terrible for those people who may be in be in a different financial position, or more frightened, people could have a nervous breakdown,' she added.
It is understood Ms Haley's parking fine was issued five months after the contravention due to her failure to update her log book.
A representative from Excel Parking Services said: 'ELMS Legal Ltd were instructed following the rejection of the Defendant's appeal by the Independent Appeals Service and in accordance with the terms and conditions in effect at the site at the time of the contravention.
'Any further details regarding the instruction of the claim and/or its discontinuance are subject to legal privilege.'
A spokesperson from Elms Legal said: 'ELMS Legal Ltd were instructed by the Claimant following the rejection of the Defendant's appeal by the Independent Appeals Service and in accordance with the terms and conditions in effect at the site at the time of the contravention.
'Any further details regarding the instruction of the claim and/or its discontinuance are subject to legal privilege.'
MailOnline has approached IAS for comment.
It comes after Hannah Robinson, of Stockton-on-Tees Country Durham, was slapped with the £11,390 bill by Excel Parking after amassing nearly 70 fines in a car park in nearby Darlington.
She tried to appeal them but received a letter in February last year ordering her to the charges racked up since 2021 - £100 for each of her 67 fines, plus a £70 debt collection fee for each one.
t was one of hundreds of letters and phone calls she received demanding her to pay the parking charge notices (PCNs) over the company's bizarre five-minute rule.
The parking firm eventually took her to court to try to compel her to pay some of the fines - but its claim was dismissed and it was ordered to pay £10,240.10 in costs to charity
She told the BBC she was 'relieved' the hearing was over: 'It has been extremely stressful and frustrating; I constantly worried what letters I was receiving or who was going to knock at the door after the threats.
Ms Robinson's ordeal began in June 2021, when she started leaving her BMW in the 650-space, multi-storey car park at Feethams Leisure shopping complex in Darlington.
Eventually, Ms Robinson received a court claim asking her to pay two of the fines, plus the debt collection fee for each, along with various other costs. Excel Parking later applied to change this claim, wishing to pursue 11 fines instead.
Regularly using the car park to go to work at a restaurant above it, she said she always paid the required fee, of up to £8.50 a day - but issues with mobile signal and the payment app meant she did not always make it within the five-minute window.
She said: 'I started getting a couple of fines and I was young and had just started driving so I would pay them because I was scared.'
But she kept using the car park as 'it was just the safest option', given the unsociable, late hours she worked, finishing at midnight or 1am.
There was a lift directly up to her workplace at a local steakhouse from the car park, which made her feel safer as a young woman walking around alone at night.
She decided to start appealing the fines in late 2022 but received no word back from Excel, even after 'begging' to speak to them, across a huge number of emails, so the issue could be sorted.
The 21-year-old eventually received a letter in February 2024 totalling the final astonishing sum the parking firm wanted her to pay - and she just immediately broke down.
Eventually, Ms Robinson received a court claim asking her to pay two of the fines, plus the debt collection fee for each, along with various other costs.
Excel Parking later applied to change this claim, wishing to pursue 11 fines instead.
But District Judge Janine Richards dismissed both this claim and the original one, saying the firm's conduct was 'unreasonable and out of the norm' and ordering it to pay Ms Robinson's costs.
The young woman had free legal representation in court - but the judge made a pro bono costs order, compelling Excel Parking to pay the Access to Justice Foundation an amount equivalent to what her lawyers spent defending her.
Following the 'very tense' hearing on March 26, Ms Robinson said: 'I feel relieved and a massive weight has been lifted from my shoulders.'
She said she felt distressed by how she had been treated by Excel and hoped the judgement on her case would help prevent other people being similarly affected.
Excel Parking told the BBC it did not want to comment as it planned to appeal the judgement.
It comes after a similar case in Derby at the end of last year, which saw a fitness model fined more than £1900 after she took more then five minutes to pay for her parking tickets.
Rosey Hudson, a professional bodybuilder and make-up artist from Derby, left her car in the Copeland Street car park in February 2023 before heading into work as usual.
She claimed there was no ticket machine in operation and the reception in the area was poor, so she had to walk a little way before buying her daily ticket via the app.
But she was horrified to then receive ten Parking Charge Notices (PCN) because she had allegedly surpassed the 'five-minute payment rule' time.
When contacted by MailOnline, Excel Parking, who run the site, said she was 'the author of her own misfortune' as she had breached the rules.
The Bikini Athletic Pro Qualifier 2023 winner said at the time, in November last year, that she would take the operator to court in an attempt to not have to pay the fines, as she branded them 'utterly unreasonable'.
But the operator eventually dropped its court claim against her in mid-December.
A spokesperson for Excel Parking said of Ms Hudson's case at the time said: 'The signage at the car park made it clear that it was "Pay on Entry" and that there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff.
'This is one of the specific terms and conditions for use of the car park. It is the driver's responsibility to read and understand the terms.
'It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune.'
.jpg)
