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The Lord Mayor of Exeter has issued advice to drivers who are given tickets by private parking companies: don’t pay them.

Percy Prowse, a former policeman, said people parking on private land have no legal obligation to the £100 fines because private companies do not have landowner status.

The Lord Mayor said: “When you drive on to private land, you should ask yourself is the landowner present? If not, and you get a parking ticket from a private parking company, you ought to consider do I need to pay the fine? My advice would be to ignore it.”

He said that such companies send out a series of “carefully worded” letters threatening serious consequences if people do not pay them the money.

Cllr Prowse, who represents Duryard on the city council and Pennsylvania and Duryard on the county council, said: “The letters never say we will take you to court. They only say we may take you to court. If you ignore the letters, nothing ever happens.”

Numerous people have complained about the actions of private parking firms operating in the city after finding themselves given tickets.

One of the companies – Premier Parking Solutions – displays signs in the car parks it manages saying that any vehicles found to be breaking the rules are “contractually agreeing” to pay a £100 fine.

But Cllr Prowse said that normally a private parking company does not have landowner status, and therefore cannot offer a contract to people using the premises under its management.

He said: “The landowner is never standing there. Most of the time the enforcement officers sit hiding in unmarked vehicles waiting for people to drive on to the private land.”

In March 2012, a tribunal judge ruled that a private parking company – Vehicle Control Services – did not have the power to pursue a motorist for an unpaid fine, because there was “no contract” between them.

Similarly, in May 2012, a judge decided the company did not have the right to demand money from another motorist, because it had “no lawful contractual assignment of authority” to do so.

Cllr Prowse, who was a police officer with the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary for 32 years, said that because of such judgements “no court case is ever won by PPS”.

But he said that many people are “frightened to death” by the tickets, and claimed 60 per cent pay the fines regardless of being in the right or wrong.

He added: “The parking firms also rely on the British tendency to appeal against the penalty charge. But although that process is supposed to be independent and fair, it is designed to fail the motorist.