A sheriff has thrown out a private parking company’s case against a Dundee man who racked up more than £700 in tickets, branding the action “incompetent.”
But the decision will not act as a test case on the legitimacy of future private parking charge claims, a Dundee solicitor has warned.
Vehicle Control Services (VCS) took Mark Robb to the city’s small claims court after he refused to pay charges on tickets received in Trades Lane and Cross Lane between December 2013 and May 2014.
But Sheriff Alastair Brown dismissed the case and awarded Mr Robb expenses, saying VCS’s agent had provided “no evidence whatsoever” that he had been the driver of the vehicle at the time.
After the decision, Mr Robb’s solicitor Gary McIlravey pursued expenses at the level granted in summary cause cases rather than at the small claims court level.
However, Sheriff Brown told him: “I can only grant expenses on a punitive scale if they have conducted themselves inappropriately. On this occasion they conducted themselves incompetently but not inappropriately.”
Mr McIlravey said: “Each case will turn on its own facts. There’s no underlying legal principle.”
