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Parking fine from Asda - what do I do?

I parked in Asda to do my weekly shop, the car park is managed by Town & City parking.

I paid £1 to park for 1 hour. I only shopped in Asda and didn't leave the site but was 18 minutes late in returning to my car owing to Asda being busy and me being 8 1/2 months pregnant and slower than usual.

The attendant was issuing the ticket as I got to my car he could see I was struggling to push my shopping trolley over being so heavily pregnant, I asked him to give some leeway and offered to buy another ticket but he laughed and walked off.

I now have a £60 fine for being 18 minutes late back to my car which was parked in a car park owned by Asda where I had just spent money with them.

I read somewhere that in the eyes of the law I only actually owe them the extra £1 I should of paid for the extra time... should I appeal this ticket or do I not have a leg to stand on?

Asked on 19 May 2012 by sarjay

Answered by Honest John
That's what these people are like. But you don't have a fine, you have a contractual penalty. And despite claiming to take between 30,000 and 90,000 people to court every year over this sort of contractual penalty, this is rare. If you ignore the ticket and if the case went to court you would almost inevitably win. And even if you lost you could countersue Asda for setting up a structure that did not allow for delays caused by its own inefficiency, in effect 'entrapping' you.
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