
Three words to beat a private parking ticket are revealed by retired judge – as fines hit record 14million
Thousands of motorists across Britain know the feeling of thinking they've been unfairly handed a parking fine.
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The unwelcome sight of a yellow sticker on your windscreen is always enough to ruin any motorist's day.
But Stephen Gold, a retired judge, has revealed the three words that can help you beat a private parking ticket.
Speaking to the MailOnline, he said: "Getting a ticket after parking in a private car park does not mean you have committed any offence.
"It won't lead to a criminal conviction, whether or not you pay it.
"You can challenge a ticket that has been wrongly issued, and the challenge could take you to the county court, where the park operator would have to sue you for non-payment to have any hope of getting you to pay up."
THE THREE WORDS
The judge told the paper that a key defence against tickets is: "I knew nothing".
This is a defence that counts on the you being able to prove that parking conditions were not properly indicated.
The operator would have to prove the conditions of parking were displayed on one or more notices that a reasonable motorist would have seen.
So if you only discovered the terms of parking upon returning - perhaps due to signs being inconspicuous or absent - the defence would hold.
It is always best to take photographs of the signs and their location within the car park if you want to use this defence.
The operator will likely try to rely on pictures of the signs within the car park - but these might not show exactly where they are.
APPEALS PROCESS
It comes as more and more car parks use number plate capturing cameras to send out tickets.
Sometimes this will result in a ticket being placed on your windscreen, but often these days a letter will be sent in the post.
If you wish to appeal a ticket, your first action should be to go to the car park operator.
An independent appeal would be the next step, and a final point would be going to a county court.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE British mother breaks down in tears as she surveys the smouldering remains of her Cyprus villa after family was forced to flee deadly wildfires with seconds to spare
This is the gut-wrenching moment a British mother broke down in tears after inspecting the smouldering remains of her family's villa in Cyprus. Lucy Armstrong and her husband Ben have told how they were forced to flee with their toddler as flames engulfed their villa during the raging wildfires that killed two people and destroyed swathes of homes. The couple had been living in their dream home in the quiet village of Souni for four years. They married last October and were settling into family life with their three-year-old son, Ethan. But this week, their entire world was turned upside down. The blaze, which authorities believe may have been started deliberately, swept through the Limassol region with such terrifying speed that it left families scrambling to escape. Two people were killed after being trapped in their car while trying to flee. More than a dozen villages were evacuated, and at least 100 square kilometres of land was scorched in what has become one of Cyprus's most devastating fires in decades. Speaking to MailOnline after going to inspect the damage to his property, Ben, 38, who moved to Cyprus four years ago, says: 'There's nothing - actually nothing.' 'The kitchen that was there, the walls, everything is completely gone. There's no recollection. 'We had fish tanks in the house, and you wouldn't even know they were even there. It's just crazy. Describing the harrowing moment his family drove away from the fire, Ben recalls: 'It looked apocalyptic. 'The smell was horrible, and even when the sun was out, the smoke was really bad. It had this creepy orangey glow. It really was like a weird apocalyptic sunset. It was very unnerving.' Lucy had just picked up Ethan from school when she rang her husband to ask if he'd seen the smoke. At first, the couple thought it might pass them by. Ben said: 'The fire was initially relatively small, and we have seen quite a few fires in the neighbourhood over the past few years, and this didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. 'The issue with this fire was that the wind picked up and just took it in multiple directions. 'When she got home, we sat there and nothing happened, but the smoke started getting big and Lucy was following reports on social media.' Worried, the couple jumped in the car and drove to a nearby viewpoint to get a clearer sense of what was happening. 'There was a viewpoint we pulled into, and we saw the fire spreading in every which way up the mountain and across. We also saw it was starting to come to Souni. 'And that's when we decided we probably need to pack and leave - and that was just to be on the safe side more than anything. 'At this time, there were no warnings, no messages, no evacuation orders - it was our own assessment.' Now armed with knowledge of the true scale of the blaze, Ben ran back to their neighbourhood to warn others. 'They thought it wasn't that bad, but eventually they started taking it seriously', Ben says. 'Everyone started packing steadily but quickly. People from the bottom of our street were running up and shouting things in Cypriot. 'One of my friends said he couldn't believe his eyes. Everyone was panicking. No one was prepared, and we had no warning.' To make things worse, the family had no power or water due to a leak on their road. Ben explains: 'We were just doing all the packing in the dark. I told my son to get as many toys as he could in a bag for life that I gave him. 'I then told him to sit still and stay calm, but also made him aware that Mum and Dad were going to run around. 'Luckily, because of my profession, I had studio lights with batteries I could put on. Ethan also had his iPad light. 'He was trying to be calm and doing a good job of pretending he was okay. He was scared.' 'We also have three dogs, so we tried to fit everything that we could in our car. As a photographer and filmmaker, I had to gather all my equipment and hard drives.' By the time they were ready to go, flames were bearing down on their home from multiple directions. 'It was coming over the hill towards us from the back and the right-hand side. In the end, it was the fire from the side that caught our house and absolutely annihilated it. 'We left the house around 8pm, and it was pretty dark. At this time, the fire had travelled all the way down to Souni.' Ben said all he could think about was keeping his young son and his wife safe. He says: 'My son is only three and a half. I was worried about him having smoke inhalation. 'My priority as a father and a husband was to make sure my son and wife were safe. That's all I cared about. I made sure we shut all the windows and the doors in the car. 'We didn't push the aircon too high, and even when we were getting into the car, we sprinted in as fast as we could.' Although he did everything in his power to protect the family, Ben says Ethan was still affected to an extent. 'My son had a really bad fever in the nighttime, and he was shivering this morning', he says. 'I'm sure he has had some effect either from being scared or missing some of his meals, as he didn't want to eat. But he's fine now, thank God. But he was really bad. 'When we put him in the car, he could see the fire all around him.' According to Ben, the already dire situation was made worse by the lack of emergency services on the ground. He admits: 'That was one of the scariest things. We didn't see a single fire engine. They were all just at the bottom of the hills, making sure it was not coming to town. 'The support wasn't there. They were not ready. And no one warned us. If we had not made the assessment that we did and thought it was okay, we probably wouldn't have gotten all the things we managed to get.' Ben was overcome with emotion on Thursday morning when he returned to their property, hoping for the best. But his worst fears came true - their beloved home was gone. He says: 'It's quite a hard thing to put into words at the moment. My wife and I haven't slept. We almost feel quite numb and just really sad that we had all these memories and now there's nothing - actually nothing. 'Today we had to explain to our son what's going on. He told us he does not like fires because they burned our house down. He's smart enough to fully understand that he's not going to go back to his house anymore. The family is now staying with Lucy's parents as they try to figure out what to do next. Ben explains: 'We need to find out what our options are. We have never been in a situation like this before. 'We have insurance on the house, but it's not just processing that the house is home. We now have to try where we can try to get support from the government, or if there's even any support. 'We don't have a house anymore. We have to think of whether we will rebuild and figure out our options.' Although Ben managed to save some of the items crucial to his business, Lucy was not as lucky and lost her business in the fire. As a kids' entertainment business owner, she stored several items like bouncy castles and bubble houses in their home. 'We couldn't take it because they were all too big, so that got absolutely decimated in the fire. 'That was at least £8,000 worth of equipment completely burned. It's all plastic, so it just disappeared. I was able to get mine and put them in camera bags, but for her, we had no choice. It's unbelievable.' As he tries to make sense of what has happened, Ben believes their home burned so quickly because of nearby brushland that hadn't been cleared. He notes: 'Our house was the only one on our street that was completely burned. I think that's got to do with a land next to us that wasn't cleared. 'That caught on fire a lot easier, and our house burned too. There's land opposite us as well, but that was cleared. 'The local government must check these fire hazards and clear them, but they didn't clear the land next to us.' Ben says his family are among the lucky ones for now. 'We have a place to stay for now, but not everyone has been as lucky. Some have lost their homes and have nowhere to go. It's completely life changing.' Ben admits that he's frustrated with the news that the fires may have been set off by an arsonist. He says: 'If someone's creating fires and it's turning into such a tragic event, that's really unfortunate. 'It's not just our houses that got burned. Our friends' houses burned down too. Some people were lucky and escaped it, but if one spark of someone throwing a match out of hate or whatever, it changes people's lives. 'We are lucky we have family, but some people don't have anything. It's really tragic what has happened to some people.'


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Lorry driver for ruthless human traffickers linked to deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants is freed from prison after serving half his seven-year sentence
A lorry driver for the gang responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese men, women and children in a failed people smuggling operation has been released from prison after serving just three and a half years. Christopher Kennedy was at the heart of the complex and lucrative human smuggling operation which for years illegally brought Vietnamese people into the UK from the Continent. Kennedy, 29, picked up containers with people inside, but not the one in which 39 Vietnamese, aged between 15 and 44, suffocated in at Purfleet, Essex in October 2019. However, the trial of the ring leaders of the people-smuggling gang heard that Kennedy, from Keady in County Armagh, was a key member and 'in the loop' after the tragedy unfolded. The Old Bailey was told Kennedy received several phone calls from haulier boss Ronan Hughes soon after the bodies were discovered in one of his trailer's by driver Maurice Robinson. The jury heard that while Robinson was informing Hughes of the discovery, Kennedy was trying to get hold of him too. Within 46 seconds of the phone call ending, Hughes rang Kennedy, who was transporting a load of wine to the UK. Seven minutes later, Hughes called Kennedy again. The court was told the calls were made between burner phones belonging to the pair. Kennedy said the calls were regarding a 'problem' with his booking to transport the wine by boat from Zeebrugge and that he should go by train. Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said: 'I suggest to you, Mr Kennedy, you are making this up and Mr Hughes, dealing with 39 dead unlawful migrants, is not at the time calmly carrying on with you about your load of wine and whether you are on the boat or on the train. 'You have had to dream up an excuse for this call.' Kennedy insisted he was telling the truth. Later on Kennedy texted a friend that the trailer in which the bodies were found belonged to Hughes. He told the friend there 'must have been too many and run out of air'. His trial in December 2020 heard he picked up containers in Essex which arrived from Belgium. His job was to deliver them to a remote location at Orsett, a 20 minute drive from the port. Twice he did this in the two weeks before the smuggling operation which went wrong on October 23 2019, which is why he was tried with the other drivers involved. Kennedy was not charged with manslaughter but was instead charged with conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration. He denied the charge and claimed he thought he was transporting cigarettes, but a jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to seven-years in jail. The Prison Service confirmed to MailOnline that Kennedy was released in January 2025 after serving half his sentence, in line with sentencing guidelines. A spokesperson said: 'Offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and we do not hesitate to send them back to prison if they break the rules.' Kennedy was sentenced alongside other key members of the gang. Four were found guilty of manslaughter of the 39 migrants, who died 'excruciatingly painful' deaths, according to the judge. Ronan Hughes, 41, and Gheorghe Nica, 43, played 'leading roles' in the smuggling conspiracy and were jailed for 20 and 27 years respectively. Two other lorry drivers were also jailed for manslaughter. Eamonn Harrison, 24, who towed the trailer to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge before their journey to the UK, was sentenced to 18 years. Maurice Robinson, 26, was given 13 years and four months, having collected the trailer and opened it in an industrial estate to find the migrants dead. Two of Kennedy's fellow truck drivers were sentenced for conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration. Valentin Calota, 38, of Birmingham, for four-and-a-half years; and Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, 28, of Hobart Road, Tilbury, Essex, was given a three-year sentence. They are understood to have been released. Sentencing, Mr Justice Sweeney said:'I have no doubt that the conspiracy was a sophisticated, long-running and profitable one to smuggle mainly Vietnamese people across the channel.' He said on the fatal trip the temperature had been rising along with the carbon dioxide levels throughout, hitting 40C (104F) while the container was at sea on 22 October 2019. 'There were desperate attempts to contact the outside world by phone and to break through the roof of the container,' the judge said. 'All were to no avail and, before the ship reached Purfleet, [the victims] all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death.' In March 2022, the Old Bailey heard Kennedy had made £67,050.65 from people smuggling but had just £6,094.18 in his Bank of Ireland account. Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered that the available money should be confiscated and used as compensation to the families of the victims.


South Wales Guardian
3 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Keira Walsh wants more protection for players from online abuse
Carter announced she would be stepping away from the platforms for the remainder of the tournament ahead of England's dramatic 2-1 semi-final comeback against Italy to set up Sunday's final showdown with Spain. Walsh came off social media after the 2019 World Cup, when reading negative comments contributed to the midfielder genuinely entertaining the thought of quitting football. 'I think it's just a personal preference,' said Walsh, who did return to the networks, but has – bar a single post – been inactive on X since 2020. Lately, her Instagram account has solely been comprised of tagged posts by the Lionesses, or her respective current and former clubs Chelsea and Barcelona. 'I haven't had social media for the best part of four or five months, and I feel a lot better most of the time,' said Walsh. 'I don't really know what's going on outside of camp. I think at the time, with what's going on, probably more people have come off it, but I can only speak for myself. 'I think obviously the girls are smart enough to know what they should and shouldn't be looking at, and I'm sure they'll know what is going to put them in a good headspace and what isn't. 'Do I think there's enough protection on social media? No, I don't, but I'm not going to be able to change that. That's not up to me, but I think just in general, people can be more protected on social media, and I think we can do more to stop that from happening.' England defender Lucy Bronze has warned companies that athletes can 'thrive' without their services, but the reality remains that in the women's game – where new Arsenal recruit Olivia Smith just became the first £1 million player – brand-building on social media can be a lucrative tool for players earning nowhere near their male equivalents. Carter's case has now been referred to UK police, and, in a statement released Sunday, Football Association CEO Mark Bullingham vowed his organisation will 'ensure those responsible for this hate crime are brought to justice'. One feature of the Online Safety Act, which received royal assent in October 2023, places a greater onus on social media companies to protect users from illegal content. Companies can be fined up to £18 million, or 10 per cent of their global revenue, if they fail to comply with their duties, but Ofcom – which is implementing the act in a phased approach – has only been able to enforce against the Illegal Harms Codes since March 17, 2025. 'I think we would have liked it to have been stronger in some cases,' said Bullingham. 'There's a real risk that if we're not firm in how the act is implemented, it won't be as strong as we hope. 'I think now it's incumbent on Ofcom to make sure they really do bring those responsible for running social media platforms to account and I haven't seen huge progress in the last couple of years. We would like to see it now.' Foreign social media companies operating within the UK are still beholden to the act, but prosecuting individuals living outside the country responsible for abusive content – which is not uncommon – remains a huge hinderance to justice. Bullingham added: 'If you look at the prosecution, obviously we can only work with the UK police, generally. There are, when we work with some of the companies that support us, there are occasions where you can prosecute outside the UK, but it's really hard and generally really expensive.' The FA chief said his organisation has engaged in productive conversations with FIFA and UEFA, encouraging them to put pressure on social media companies to prevent harmful content from appearing in the first place. He added: 'But where there are occasions, make sure we can prosecute. And we do think that people who perpetrate these hate crimes should be prosecuted wherever they are in the world.'