Woman Fined £24,500 After Ignoring 200 Parking Tickets

If you’re going to ignore more than 200 parking tickets, you’d better be sure the law is on your side. One Dundee woman has just discovered this the hard way after being fined £24,500 over unpaid parking tickets in the biggest parking-related penalty in British history.

Carly Mackie repeatedly parked her Mini outside her stepfather’s rented place in Dundee, in front of his garage where the road is clearly marked with double yellow lines. Although she claims not to park physically over the lines themselves, that doesn’t matter to the law.

Apparently she simply binned the regular parking charge notices that appeared on her windscreen. According to the Telegraph, she never even bothered to challenge any of them, believing the fines to be unenforceable. Ms Mackie had also refused the offer of a permit-controlled parking space nearby for a cost of £40 per month.

Speaking in 2015, she told reporters:

“I’ve considered moving out. It just makes my life so hellish. We have a right to park in front of our own property.”

She was proved quite wrong after Vehicle Control Services, the company that issued the fines as part of a contracted agreement with the local authority that covers Ms Mackie’s stepdad’s address, took her to court last year. Far from being the unenforceable type, the fines were issued fully legally despite coming from a private firm.

The key difference is that private firms handing out ‘tickets’ on private car parks could actually be issuing invoices that can’t be enforced, whereas private firms carrying out contracted parking enforcement on public streets are usually acting legally.

The fine, made up of the £18,500 in unpaid tickets and a further £6000 in legal costs, is now binding and must be paid. Ouch.

In a written judgement, Sheriff George Way said that the Mini driver had:

“entirely misdirected herself on both the law and the contractual chain in this case. She knew perfectly well what the signs displayed and that she was parking in breach of the conditions.

“She stated that (effectively a protest position) parking charges were illegal and unenforceable in Scotland and that she could park where she liked as her [step]father’s guest. The defender is not the tenant. The defender’s car was an additional burden on the parking facilities and she was the same as any other interloper.”

Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, which brought the case on behalf of Vehicle Control Services, said they would be happy to discuss payment terms. We reckon the £40 per month parking space must look pretty damn good right about now.