A Sheffield mum has slammed Excel Parking for “contempt of the court process” after a case against her collapsed due to shoddy evidence.
Jane Walker accused the company of “wasting public time and expense” after the “farce” of a hearing at Sheffield’s County Court.
The firm sued her after she input the wrong number plate at Broomhill Rooftop parking. Initially it demanded £100 but this rose to £245 by the time of the hearing.
In court, Excel insisted the penalty was in terms and conditions detailed on its sign boards.
But judge Guy Baddeley said the small print on photos submitted in evidence was unreadable. It meant the company had failed to prove to him there was any charge for her mistake.
Jane Walker accused the company of “wasting public time and expense” after the “farce” of a hearing at Sheffield’s County Court.
The firm sued her after she input the wrong number plate at Broomhill Rooftop parking. Initially it demanded £100 but this rose to £245 by the time of the hearing.
In court, Excel insisted the penalty was in terms and conditions detailed on its sign boards.
But judge Guy Baddeley said the small print on photos submitted in evidence was unreadable. It meant the company had failed to prove to him there was any charge for her mistake.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Elated. I believe this is over. It's been a very stressful 12 months of trying to prove
00:07 that I did in fact pay for a parking ticket in a car park.
00:13 It need never have come to this fundamentally because they should have engaged with me in
00:19 the first place and spoken with me. We could have viewed the evidence that they refused
00:25 to submit and clarified that I had in fact made a key error in terms of paying for my
00:33 parking. So I fought this today because fundamentally
00:38 I'm an honest person and felt that it was important to stand up for the fact that I
00:44 had paid for my parking. A £100 fine is extreme in any instance and for me as a mum of three
00:55 children it was money that I could have spent elsewhere and not given to line the pockets
01:01 of corporate greed. I'm frustrated by their unprofessionalism.
01:07 I feel that the whole process has been very unprofessional from the display in court today
01:14 to their refusal to hand over information that I'd quite rightly asked for citing data
01:20 protection legislation as a cover to protect themselves.
01:27 My advice to anybody in a similar situation is to trust in yourself, believe in your own
01:32 honesty and your integrity and fight for what you think is right.
01:37 We don't have to hand over money to these greedy corporations.
01:41 We can stand up and fight for our own rights.
01:47 I think the government should offer better protection for consumers in instances like
01:53 mine where small errors can lead to very large fines.
01:58 Those fines need to be moderated and they need to be set at a set tariff for people
02:04 that make mistakes.
02:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]