The Corby man who took on a 'bully-boy' private car park firm in two-year court battle - and won

Martin Anderson, a volunteer who litter picks with the Corby Wombles, parked at the Cardigan Arms in Corby Old Village in March 2022.

The pub acts as a collection point for Womble equipment so while Martin was picking up some litter bags, he stopped for a pint.

The landlord had an open agreement with the group that they could use the ANPR-controlled car park for their volunteer work.

When he had arrived at the car park it was dark and wet and, although he had read the signs, they said it was for customer use only and nowhere did they mention that punters had to sign a form at the bar to register their car.

But several days later Martin received a £100 penalty charge from an external company that managed the car park.

He appealed the ticket and told the parking firm he’d been a pub customer, but his appeal was rejected despite the pub landlord also offering to help him get the charge overturned.

The recently-retired principal building control officer for Bedford Borough Council, told the Northants Telegraph: “I then had two or three letters from different debt collection companies.

"They just try to bully you.

"They threaten you with CCJs and I’m a landlord with several different mortgages so that could have some serious consequences for me.”

Martin was then told he could appeal to POPLA, an arbitration service wholly funded by the private parking industry. He did so, but his appeal was again rejected.

"It’s like they’re marking their own homework,” said Martin.

"I thought, right, take me to court then. I was a legitimate customer, nowhere on the signs did it say you had to register at the bar for a ‘permit’ to park, so I just thought that there was no way I would lose.”

It’s taken more than two years and reams of paperwork sent backwards and forwards for the company to take Martin to court to try to force him to pay the charge – with their claim eventually rising to £277.65 to include fees and costs. He decided to represent himself in court and at the same time counterclaimed for his own costs.

But the process has been so time-intensive that it was a factor in him deciding to retire from his day job.

Martin started to do some digging and discovered that the ownership of the company that was taking him to court – Civil Enforcement Limited (CEL) was owned by a series of off-shore shell companies.

"You can’t speak to anyone,” he said.

"It’s quite a job to take on the parking bully boys.”

Martin appeared at Northampton County Court last Thursday (May 9) and was up against an advocate for CEL.

After a two-hour hearing the case against him was dismissed and District Judge Nicholas Glassbrook awarded Martin £100 in expenses against the firm.

He said that there were inaccuracies in the company’s witness statement because they had said that signage made clear that customers had to validate their parking at the bar – but it did not.

Martin said: “I’m glad that I won but I’d asked for more money to cover the incredible amount of time I’d put into this.

"I don’t like being bullied and I didn’t want to stand for it.”

This newspaper has made several attempts to contact Civil Enforcement Limited but the company cannot be reached by phone or email. The firm has 2,300 reviews on Trip Advisor, with an overall rating of one star – the lowest possible score. Only five of 2,300 ratings give the company more than one star.

Figures show that private car parking companies issued 9.7m million tickets in the nine months up to December last year.

The Cardigan Arms now employs a different parking enforcement firm.