Parking Charge Notice issued by private car park operator in supermarket car park: Do I have to pay?

I have received a Parking Charge Notice for shopping and parking at Lidls only to be slapped with a fine for £75.00. I shopped at the supermarket on two separate occasion almost 7 hours apart. Their policy states that shop and park for an hour and no returns with 3 hours. I have tried to dispute this claim. I told them to review all their CCTV footage for my evidence. They then told me that they hold no records of vehicle movement between these times and unfortunately I am not able to find my receipts to show and I paid in cash at the time. Is there anything I can do to get this charge dropped? I am really disappointed that a legitimate customer can be treated in this manner.

Official parking tickets can only be issued by the police, traffic wardens and local authority parking attendants. The police and traffic wardens issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) which can be enforced through the criminal justice system while local authority parking attendants can issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) which are enforced through the civil courts.

Your official looking Parking Charge Notice (which sometimes appear as a Penalty Control Notice) are unknown to British law and appear to be an attempt by parking companies to pass off as the similarly named council issued official Penalty Charge Notices. It is unlikely Lidls operate the car park themselves and you are likely to be dealing with a private parking company which is seeking to exploit the gullible.

Depending on the wording these tickets may be illegal and should always be challenged.

The only recourse to law the company would have would be in bringing a civil action for trespass and their so-called Parking Charge Notice is a dubious attempt to persuade you to accept an invitation to settle out of court.

You should challenge the parking company (rather than Lidls at this stage) on the basis of the fact that you acted in accordance with regulations and that the signage warning of the offence was wholly insufficient and you were not adequately warned of the penalty. Given that few (if any) companies will send a representative on the off chance of winning such a case that should be the last you should hear from them.

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