Thread: Britain, is now USA

Does a private firm have the right to issue fines? I'd tell them to go fuck themselves, they're not the law. It may be their RULE that people may park no longer than 75 minutes but it's not the LAW.

If it's their property, they can determine the law.
She's lucky they didn't tow her car away.
If someone parked in my driveway for a few hours, without permission, I could have them towed. What's the difference?

How would they know her address to send the fine if she was just a punter? If they did it from the rego then how did they find the mailing address from the car rego without access to police rego database? How can they enforce a fine? Get the car towed away maybe, but enforce a fine? Need to go through civil courts amd prove legitimacy of claim for money. The whole thing sounds like its been cooked up for a 'Sun'-sational headline to lampoon fatties and fried food addiction.

Originally Posted by Looper

How would they know her address to send the fine if she was just a punter? If they did it from the rego then how did they find the mailing address from the car rego without access to police rego database? How can they enforce a fine? Get the car towed away maybe, but enforce a fine? Need to go through civil courts amd prove legitimacy of claim for money. The whole thing sounds like its been cooked up for a 'Sun'-sational headline to lampoon fatties and fried food addiction.

Any company can access the DVLA database, as long as they pay a fee and demonstrate 'reasonable cause'. In fact this had led to exposes of convicted criminals gaining access to it.

It is a scandal, it is outragous, it is the UK.

Originally Posted by cujo

If someone parked in my driveway for a few hours, without permission, I could have them towed. What's the difference?

Could you? By law? What law? I think you'd have to find they were breaking a law.
When a penalty determined by a corporation becomes enforceable in the courts I start to get worried.

Well, you should have become worried from about 1998, when this became UK law.

Originally Posted by cujo

Are you sure? By that logic if a woman wanders onto my property without my permission, I, being the one who determines the law as it's my property, can rob her, rape her, kill her, take her shoes, grab her by the ankles and drag her off my property? (hey, it's my property, I determine the law)

Don't know about the UK, but private companies here can enforce any policy that doesn't contravene local, state, or federal laws. So, the above example is moot.

Originally Posted by Looper

How would they know her address to send the fine if she was just a punter?

It's modern day Britain, mate.

It's a CCTV fookin' police state.

Originally Posted by cujo

Originally Posted by Texpat

If it's their property, they can determine the law.

Are you sure? By that logic if a woman wanders onto my property without my permission, I, being the one who determines the law as it's my property, can rob her, rape her, kill her, take her shoes, grab her by the ankles and drag her off my property? (hey, it's my property, I determine the law)

That's a stretch of the logic, you can only determine the 'law' within legally permissable limits.

Anyways calling it a 'law' is a misnomer; it's not about laws it's about private property owners being able to set limits (legally permissable limits) on the use of their property.

^ Yeah, what he said.

When a penalty determined by a corporation becomes enforceable in the courts I start to get worried.

How do public parking garages get away with charging fees?

Why aren't parking meters illegal?

Are you a country boy? There are jillions of restricted parking lots in thousand of cities around the world. All legal. If you own the property, you decide how it is to be used.