No, you cannot extort me for parking, either!

We must act in honour and pay for what is owed, but resist unlawful demands

Britain is a scamocracy. Everywhere you look, the power of the feudal-corporate state is used to rob the debt slaves of their registered assets. We do not own the fiat money in our bank accounts, as they are current accounts (i.e. on the bank’s books and subject to bail-in), not fiduciary accounts (managed by the bank but legally separate). We do not have alloidal title to the land our homes are on, making us perpetual tenants to the Crown, and subject to taxation and seizure. Our children are registered at birth to become surety to bonds without our knowledge.

One of the scams is driver licensing. We have a common law right to travel — just as we have a right to sleep, breathe, and eat without state imposition. Here is a case relevant being dismissed in America because someone knows how to pronounce the word “constitution” in front of a judge, and assert their common law rights. Over here in England, “constitution” is a four-letter word in court, and indicates you are a nutcase “freeman of the land” worthy of no respect. In other words, naked treason by the authorities.

When we register our car we effectively surrender it to the state, merely becoming its “registered keeper”. A “driver” is someone operating in commerce. The state then attaches fake liabilities and fraudulent fines to “drivers” for activities with their “registered vehicle”. A huge extortion industry has grown up around things like parking “penalties”, which bear no relation to any loss, profiteering from ordinary trivial infractions. A relevant Supreme Court ruling is here, and process for objecting is here. At the end of the day, the automated shakedowns are a scam based on making you surrender your innate rights.

Recently, I was trying to drop off a friend in Newcastle so he could retrieve some lost property from the train station. I wanted to stop outside the front of the station, and circle around the block, to pick him up again. Instead, I found myself trapped just off the main road. So in order to decide what to do and not block anyone, I briefly pulled into a parking space marked for hotel users. Then I saw the proposed terms to contract, which did not include a parking fee, but only outrageous and unconscionable terms that included £100 for merely waiting, no matter how briefly.

As you can imaging, I am not keen on being extorted this way, so as a matter of illustration, I am pushing back. First, I sent this email as soon as I got home around midnight:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was attempting to drop off a passenger yesterday (Friday) at the train station, and being unfamiliar with driving in Newcastle I ended up in front of your hotel. I found no way to proceed to the front of the station as I had anticipated, as it is blocked by the taxi rank. Without leaving my car, I briefly stopped in the parking space in front of the hotel, and then saw your sign regarding it being private land, and your proposed terms to contract. It took me a few minutes to read the details, and also see that there was the way out via the long stay car park.

I am a firm believer in private property rights, and I will gladly pay the £5 listed on your website as a matter of principle, since I was also hoping to find a lawful place to park to get a sandwich at the station, which I did not do. Please give me details of how to pay.

I would like to draw your attention to the famous law case of Olley v Marlborough Court Hotel, which says that you cannot impose terms after a contract is formed. In this case, a similar principle applies: attempting to form a contract for waiting, even very briefly, is impossible when to even see the terms requires you to stop and wait!

I assert that the use of PCNs in unlawful, since they falsely attempt to create a contract with an unrelated third party without consent and in violation of data protection rights. They also are unconstitutional, since they rely on administrative courts under merchant law that violate the justice's oath of office. A fake fine unrelated to any loss or damage is immoral, so I shall not be paying any PCN, and will resist any such imposition, and recover damages for any violation of my civil rights. Also, given the layout of the road in front of your hotel, and the near impossibility of distinguishing it from the public highway in advance, this feels too close to entrapment.

The registration of my car is [REDACTED].

Sincerely,

Martin Geddes

I have had no response in a week, as they do not want to make joinder. However, I have legitimately offered to pay, and if they decline to take my money, they cannot recover damages via the penalty mechanism. So I am actively spiking that. This legal notice (so not a mere “letter” or “complaint”) is going in the post this afternoon:

TO: The Manager

Notice of offer to pay
Notice to agent is notice to principal
Notice to principal is notice to agent
Failure to rebut is acquiescence

I have attached an email which I sent to your hotel a week ago, and have to date received no response. You may find it easier to read this first and then the rest of this cover notice.

I genuinely and sincerely want to pay for the 10 minutes of loading that I did in my car on Friday 27^th October in front of your hotel. If I had known there was a public car park just around the corner through the alleyway I would have stopped there instead (and got some lunch too). While there was another space empty next to me, so I did not prevent anyone from parking. If you feel there was harm or loss, please let me know if this is your claim, and within reason I will make it good.

In my email I offered you £5, which is the day rate on your website. Having visited the area again since, I am now aware that the current parking fee at the long stay car park is £8 off-peak, so I am upping my offer to that. Please give me the information needed to pay you, so I can close this loop, and not have to engage in a pointless challenge to an unlawful PCN. A charge of £100 from an unrelated third party, not disclosed before parking, in a space easily confused with the public highway, demanded based on the act of waiting no matter how briefly, and imposed after the fact, is immoral as well as unenforceable. You cannot label the spaces as hotel parking, then have an interloper extort people and give you a kickback.

If you do not respond within 14 days then I will take it that your hotel has refused payment for use of its facilities, and agrees to make good on any loss I endure as the result of your agent in making a false claim against me.

Martin Geddes

So, now they have a bit of a problem. If they issue me with a Penalty Charge Notice (i.e. a fake fine based on no contract), then I can legitimately sue the hotel for wasting my time. Turn the tables on them! Make this corrupt system unprofitable. Push back at every possible opportunity. Use the tool of (non-)rebuttal to make their silence and stonewalling work against them. This all stops when we cease to comply, at sufficient scale.

I hope this example is of help to you in your own local fights against the usurers. It is virtuous to turn over some tables of commerce that interfere with sacred acts, so I hear!

I got a Ricoh GR III (with help from readers) to replace my beloved Fujifilm X100F.