UK CPS Ltd

mysterio_2 · 14 July 2012 at 1:11PM

Trip out this morning to a large retail park, have a blue badge due to disability parked in a marked bay & went to shop

we returned to a PARKING NOTICE CHARGE stuck on the car...looking at the windscreen the badge had slipped down so ok I may be a little at fault BUT the fine is £60 to £100 depending on how long I take to pay...on the rear it lists threats of court action and baliff visit if we dont comply..along with at the bottom "this parking ticket has been issued lawfully and collection procedure us in accordance with the admin of justice act 1970"

I have a feeling everyone will say ignore it and move on..just want some advice as OH is worried!

funny thing is the ticket is a joke..you can barely see any of the stuff theywrote..but ticked a box saying no badge on view in "disables" bay :rotfl:

Stephen_Leak · 14 July 2012 at 1:20PM

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Only councils, the police, train operators and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. A private company or individual can't. A private parking company (PPC) call their tickets “Parking Charge Notices”, not “Penalty Charge Notices”. In law, they’re called “speculative invoices”.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and a driver entering the car park in the first place. See The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 and Excel Parking Services vs. Cutts, Stockport, 2011.

All the car park owner (CPO) can claim from a driver in damages for any alleged breach of any alleged contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If it’s in a free car park or the driver paid, this is £0.00. Demanding more has been judged to be unreasonable and therefore an unfair contract penalty under the terms of The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997, which is not legally enforceable. See Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914 and countless cases since.

There are also now two recent landmark court cases, VCS Parking Control vs. Ronald Ibbotson, S!!!!horpe, 2012 and VCS Parking Control vs. HM Revenue & Customs, Upper Tax Tribunal, 2012. In both cases, the judges ruled that only the car park owner can take drivers to court. The Upper Tax Tribunal is a court of record, equivalent to the High Court, and therefore its judgement sets a legal precedent.

The Blue Badge scheme doesn’t apply to private car parks. Anyone, who’s disabled under the terms of The Equality Act 2010 can use a disabled parking bay. If they’re also Blue Badge holders, they don't need to display it. The Equality Act doesn't say that able-bodied drivers can't also use disabled parking bays. OK, maybe they shouldn't, but they can. This probably contravenes the terms & conditions for the car park, which usually state that you shouldn't park in a disabled bay without displaying a badge. This, in itself, contravenes The Equality Act.

What should I do now?

We don’t condone not paying or overstaying in a pay car park. If you owe the CPO the original charge, then you ought to write to the CPO, offering this in “full and final settlement”. In any event, you should write to the CPO, advising them that they are "jointly and severally liable" for the actions of their agents, the PPC, and that any further actions by either of them would be regarded as harassment under the terms of The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This ought to make the CPO call off the PPC and, hopefully, realise the potential cost of doing business with a PPC.

Don’t appeal to the PPC. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off? Actually, there is something in it for them: information. They need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with harassing the registered keeper.

With windscreen notices, an appeal letter will tell them your name and address, and maybe who was driving at the time. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to buy the details of registered keeper from the DVLA. With postal notices, they’ve had to do this already. But they still need to know the identity of the driver.

They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve written and told them who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of harassing the registered keeper, they can now harass the driver.

What will they do to me?

The PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor will send you a series of letters. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These letters will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable to intimidate you into paying.

But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that an e-mail scammer couldn't sue anyone who didn’t pay them.

What should I do then?

Continue to ignore everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. It does seem counter-intuitive to deal with something by ignoring it. Eventually, they will run out of empty threats, and stop throwing good money after bad.

ManxRed · 14 July 2012 at 1:21PM

There is no legal requirement whatsoever to display a blue badge in a disabled bay on private property. Check the blue badge handbook.

You've done absolutely nothing wrong.

Definitely ignore them.

LincolnshireYokel · 14 July 2012 at 1:21PM

Yup ignore the brainless scammers.

For a start, road markings on private land, including pretend disabled bays, are a fantasy, they dont mean anything. PPC's have no lawful authority to 'enforce' them.

And they have just been told by an Upper Court that since they arent the landowner, they have no lawful authority to offer parking, and therefore no lawful authority to penalise and pursue anyone.

The wheels of the private parking scam have well and truly fallen off in the last few weeks.

mysterio_2 · 14 July 2012 at 1:29PM

Thank you guys as always....she seemed a little better now after I told her to read the replies!

WageSlave1_2 · 14 July 2012 at 1:48PM

One can't help but admire how the cheeky wee scrotes have used the reference to the Administration of Justice Act to give their bogus ticket a veneer of legitimacy and statutory authority when, of course, it is that very Act that makes pretending that a demand is made with such authority an offence as well as saying that creditors cannot hound debtors unreasonably without committing an offence, etc.

Something for Trading Standards to look into perhaps?

barjam_2 · 14 July 2012 at 2:01PM

mysterio wrote: »

Thank you guys as always....she seemed a little better now after I told her to read the replies!

i got a piece of paper stuck on my windscreen in january , i knew via this forum to ignore, but just be safe i confirmed it with 'give them fa'

i have had approx 4 letters from them, (which i've kept just for the fun of it) the last one i had was in march , so i'm presuming thats the end of it, but if it's not i'm still happy to ignore :rotfl:

notts_phil · 14 July 2012 at 2:32PM

Can I suggest to the O

notts_phil · 14 July 2012 at 2:35PM

Can I suggest that the OP edits his or her post so haswell can't identify it

mysterio_2 · 14 July 2012 at 2:46PM

Hmm just read on their website

"
Disabled badge holders

If a driver has not displayed their disabled badge when parked in a disabled bay and has received a ticket we will cancel it on the production of a copy of their disabled badge. We are committed in our approach and to rigorously comply with the Government Disability Discriminations Act. "

yet further in says they will ticket anyone using a bay blue badge or not...

taffy056 · 14 July 2012 at 3:06PM

mysterio wrote: »

Hmm just read on their website

"
Disabled badge holders

If a driver has not displayed their disabled badge when parked in a disabled bay and has received a ticket we will cancel it on the production of a copy of their disabled badge. We are committed in our approach and to rigorously comply with the Government Disability Discriminations Act. "

yet further in says they will ticket anyone using a bay blue badge or not...

It's just junk so they can get your contact details and who was driving, they then will then say in your case that the pretend ticket was issued properly and want payment in any case. I would suggest you alter the first post not to say when it was issued, haswell their office lackey trolls this website trying to glean who you are.

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