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Thursday 7 August 2014

ParkingEye targets motorbike riders

The Prankster has been given a copy of a Parking Charge from ParkingEye showing how they are targeting motorbike riders.

The motorist visited the car park twice, but received a ticket from ParkingEye for one long stay. This is a regular occurrence for long suffering motorists. ParkingEye are well aware that their system is deficient and can issue tickets for one visit when two visits occur. This does not stop them trying it on in court and claiming against motorists when this happens.



The pictures show the vehicle is a motorbike. Now the thing about motorbikes are that a large number of them do not have front number plates, including the bike in question. Therefore, both pictures must be of the bike departing. ParkingEye will never detect these types of bike arriving because their arrival cameras will never detect a numberplate.

Some questions therefore arise as to the professionalism and integrity of ParkingEye.

Firstly, The Prankster questions the use of the arrival photograph, which only shows the number plate and is otherwise black. This was taken at 7:23 on a Summer morning, a day the motorist confirms was bright and sunny. 

ANPR cameras have two components; a normal camera and an infra-red camera. This photograph therefore appears to be from the infra-red camera. The use of this picture is extremely dubious. The normal camera would have shown the motorbike departing and would have made it obvious the ticket should not have been issued as the pictures showed two departs, not an arrival and a depart. There appears to be no reason, such as poor light or bad weather, why the normal camera photograph could not be used.

If this picture was deliberately selected by ParkingEye then this throws their integrity into question. If this was not deliberately selected, then this throws their professionalism into question. If one photograph shows a motorbike rear plate then no ticket should be issued unless the other photograph shows a front plate. As motorbikes often only have one plate it is an unsafe and abusive practice to issue tickets with only one clear photograph which shows a rear plate.

ParkingEye regularly try and bluff courts into thinking their ANPR data is accurate by saying that 19 different checks are made. However, they clam up when asked exactly what these checks are, and how they are relevant. This incident shows their checks are clearly not up to the mark and cannot be relied on in court proceedings.


Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster



3 comments:

  1. Bikes made before 2001 can (but don't have to) display a front plate.

    There are a scant handful of classics around using side facing mudguard plates, which isn't the issue here. I've never seen a bike owner chose to mount a front facing plate. Ever.

    I hope the owner enjoys his court costs.

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  2. it is not possible to mount a forward facing plate on a motorcycle in the uk. the front forks form part of the suspension, and compress up and down. On the first major bump in the road, either the numberplate would be bent or broken, or the suspension would be interfered with.

    Front numbers were either painted on both side of a deep valanced front mudguard, or painted both side of a curving plate mounted along the front mudguard. Either way, the plate could only be read from the side of the bike, and would not be seen from the front.

    There is no way the motorcycle pictured could be entering the car park, unless the rider was pushing it backwards through what appears to be the exit.

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  3. This happen to me at Eddisbury square in Frodsham cheshire. I'd met at Costa Coffee in the morning g for a ride out with several friends and arrived back that evening and grabbed another coffee before heading home. The result a parking fine for staying 6 hours. They however were very sneaky. I appealed the charge stating the nature of the visit and they countered by stating Costa was across the road from the square and therefore I was in breach of contract as the carpark was only for the shops directly surrounding the square. It did go to court and I did win by insisting I had parked my motorcycle on the bike rack which was not on the carpark but next to and used the evidence of the log book that my bike was registered as a bicycle. The judge decided in my favour.

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