Free Traffic Legal Advice
Live cases legal advice => Private parking tickets => Topic started by: bav1969 on November 24, 2025, 04:58:34 pm
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Oh dear... silly mistake:
...I parked in the car park directly outside the restaurant
All you had to do was decline to identify the driver and they could not touch you in law as the Keeper. Too bad!
You will now have to go through the protracted affair of waiting for them to issue a county court claim and go through the process until is eventually discontinued. It will take about 9-12+ months. However, if you follow the advice, you won't be paying penny to MET.
Next time you get a PCN from an unregulated private parking firm, you never, ever, EVER identify the driver, inadvertently or otherwise. By doing so, you are most likely going to throw away the best defence.
My advice, now that you FUBAR'd it, is to ignore everything else from now on until you receive a Letter of Claim (LoC) which will be issued by the bulk litigator DCB Legal.
You can safely ignore all debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless except to try and intimidate the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree into paying out of ignorance and fear.
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The problem is, the original poster identified the driver in the appeal.
A search of the forum for Stansted will show many cases for this location, and the fact that it is not “relevant land” for the purpose of transferring liability from the unknown driver to the registered keeper.
Now that the driver has been identified, this avenue has closed. MET can pursue the driver.
The response incorrectly refers to Starbucks, but the poster was a McDonald’s customer.
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Not sure if it's helpful, but have you looked at this:
https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/re-met-parking-services-southgate-park-stansted-airport-starbucksmcdonalds-notic/
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Hello all, I came back from holiday and at 2.00am in the morning saw the McDonalds and pulled in to get some food for my son. The car park was poorly lit and we went inside and ordered our food and then left.
To my horror we received a parking ticket. Which I contested and told them that I brought food. We were only there for 11 minutes in total.
I sent this.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to formally contest the above penalty notice. I believe it has been issued in error, as my vehicle was parked on private land while I visited McDonald’s to purchase food.
I parked in the car park directly outside the restaurant, entered the premises to buy my meal, and then returned to my vehicle. At no point was I aware of committing any offence, nor do I believe I breached any parking regulations.
In light of this, I kindly request that the penalty notice be reviewed and cancelled.
Thank you for your consideration.
I have now been told that my appeal is not successful and i must pay. To me this is criminal and I was parked outside mcdonalds, it was dark and all the lights in the car park were switched off.
Thank you for your correspondence received in regards to the above parking charge.
24/11/2025
The terms and conditions of parking are clearly stated on signs prominently displayed in this area. These include that the
car park is a pay by phone car park but there is a 60-minute free stay for Southgate Park customers. At the time your
vehicle was parked on site the premises located at Southgate Park (Starbucks) was closed and therefore you were not a
customer. As such, the free parking period was not available, but no payment was made for your stay. Therefore, we
believe the charge was issued correctly and we are upholding it.
We are confident there are sufficient signs at this location bringing the terms and conditions of parking to the attention of
motorists and it remains the driver's responsibility to check the signs where they park and comply with the terms and
conditions.
This decision, which has been based on the facts of the case and takes into account our consideration of any mitigating
circumstances, is our final decision. You have reached the end of our internal appeals procedure and you now have a
number of options
What can I do to contest this as its not fair. Thanks