Judge tells shopkeeper parking outside is not his

A NICOSIA judge said yesterday that in no case could a shop claim street parking outside as its own exclusive parking.

His ruling came as he fined a 44-year-old shop owner £315 for assaulting a 36-year-old accountant who had parked on the street in front of his premises last April.

Taking the stand, the plaintiff, who runs an accountancy firm in the same building as the man accused of the attack, told the court that he had parked his car in the street just outside the shop in Strovolos.

“The accused then came upstairs to our offices and started shouting. I came out of my office to try and calm him down. At this point, he walked off and I saw him going towards the elevator so I ran up to him to warn him that the lift wasn’t working properly and that he could get stuck in there”, said the 36-year-old.

“At this point,” he continued, “the man suddenly lashed out at me scratching my arm in the process.”

The defendant claimed it was he who had been attacked by the plaintiff after he had gone upstairs to complain.

“When I walked back to the lift, the man chased me and attacked me. I am a peaceful man. I have never attacked anyone in my life.”

Unconvinced, Judge Angelos David said: “Judging from the eye-witness accounts and the reasons behind the attack, I find the plaintiff’s testimony convincing. The witness account of the accused is not only vague, it is unsubstantiated. I rule in favour of the plaintiff and find the accused guilty of the charge of assault.”

The judge added that the accused had no right to complain about the man parking in front of his shop, adding such disputes were a frequent phenomenon in Cyprus.

“There is absolutely no legislation stating that the parking in front of person’s shop is the shop’s private parking, unless it has been ruled a private parking by the municipality.

“There are many disputes over parking on the island which unfortunately end up in the courts.”