Catherine Salmond: Leave stores' parking fines on the shelves

THERE is nothing motorists hate more than the sight of that small, yet glaringly obvious piece of paper lodged beneath their windscreen wiper. A parking fine. The meanies have caught up with you and you're going to have to pay.

But increasingly it is not just on the streets that drivers are being hit with parking tickets, but in supermarket car parks, hospital grounds and railway stations too. Being caught by a private patrol can be more painful than landing a standard parking fine, with typical penalty charges of anything up to 70.

A string of motorists have been left seething in the Capital recently, feeling they have been unfairly ticketed in a private car park.

Their "offences" have included leaving their car outside marked parking bays and being accused – despite their vehement protests – of using shop car parks as unofficial park and rides.

The drivers have felt strongly that they shouldn't have to pay these "fines", but are unsure of where they stand if they refuse. Most, fearing the worst, have simply paid up.

Concerns about some private parking companies (PPCs) has grown in recent months. It is only reasonable that there is some system to stop selfish drivers freely taking over disabled parking bays and parent and child spaces, or causing other disruption.

But motorists are increasingly feeling that many of these firms are acting at times both as if they are above the law and as if they are the law.

Stirling MP Anne McGuire described one firm as "rude, patronising and threatening" when she raised her concerns in the Commons earlier this year.

There is also disquiet that their demands are often described as "penalty charges" or "fines", making them sound as if they carry a form of legal authority which they don't have.

Scots lawyer Graham Walker, whose firm www.roadtrafficlaw.com specialises in motoring offences, questions the practices of many PPCs and the size of the charges they levy. "I am aware of some companies sending out pseudo legal parking penalty notices that look as if they have the authority of the state. They don't. They are often misleading and indicate the owner of the vehicle is responsible in law for the parking fine. They are not," he says.

"The contractor or the supermarket will require to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that you parked your car for over an agreed period and that you are somehow liable for their penalty. How can they do this when they cannot prove who was driving the car at the time?

"The driver is not obliged in law to provide driver details as this is not a criminal law matter and these people do not have the authority of the state to demand details of the driver."

The "penalty charges" that many firms try to impose is often "way in excess of what would be a fair and proportionate penalty", he adds.

So what rights do you have when you are "fined" by a private firm which isn't working for the police or local council? What if you simply refused to pay up?

Lawyer Peter Jones, who advises the motorists' rights campaigning website www.PePiPoo.com, suggests there is little likelihood of anything further happening in most cases.

The Leicestershire-based lawyer has handled 3,000 cases since 2007. Only two of the drivers who challenged their tickets were ultimately taken to court by the PPC which tried to fine them – and in both those instances the private firm failed to turn up to court. The result? The driver escaped without paying the penalty charge and the PPC was ordered to pay their legal costs. "I suspect PPCs don't sue their victims, and they are victims, because they know the merits of their case are non-existent," he says.

Those who don't pay tend to receive letters warning of further legal action if they don't cough up, with the warnings escalating to include threats to call in bailiffs to seize assets, something that is impossible without a court ruling.

The parking companies buy motorists' details somewhat controversially from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)

, which says the information – including motorists' names and addresses – is only provided if there is "reasonable cause" for it to do so.

An agency spokesman says: "Unauthorised parking on private land is a widespread problem and landowners would have great difficulty in enforcing their rights if motorists were simply able to ignore legitimate parking rules.

"So the DVLA has to strike a balance, allowing fair enforcement but protecting motorists. We know it is vitally important to protect people's information and that is why we introduced measures to ensure information is not misused."

Many of the PPCs themselves seem reluctant to talk about their business practices. One which did respond to enquiries from the Evening News was Town and City Parking, based in Perth, which manages sites for Tesco, the NHS, ScotRail, Asda and Sainsbury's.

Director Elaine Montgomery says simply: "We offer our clients flexible car park management solutions freeing them to get on with their core business, while we get on with ours, providing effectively managed parking facilities and tackling problems of unauthorised parking and car park abuse."

GETTING OUT A FINE MESS

What can you do if you feel you have been treated unfairly by a private parking firm?

• Some motorists say they have simply ignored a ticket and subsequent warning letters and eventually heard nothing more. This is risky as some private parking companies (PPCs) have taken motorists to court in such circumstances, although rarely.

• You are under no obligation to give any information you feel uneasy about to a PPC. Remember, they are private companies and not statutory bodies.

• If you were not the driver at the time of the offence, lawyers suggest you can simply inform the firm and ask them not to contact you again. Lying though is not recommended.

• To force you to pay up, a PCC would ultimately have to prove their case against you in a civil court. If for any reason you feel they are on shaky ground, it may be worth getting further advice from Trading Standards or a lawyer.