A private parking charge is not a penalty notice... even if official-looking letters prompt us to pay without question

People are caught out with parking charges on a regular basis

Fionola Meredith

It was one of those mornings: slept in, missed breakfast, running late for a meeting in town and not a parking space to be found. Finally, I spied one in a privately operated car park in Belfast.

My phone rang the moment I’d parked. It was my bank, informing me that an unauthorised sum of money had been taken from my account.