Parking Ticket from CPM

Siyborg_66 wrote: »

So, I've now received a 'Formal Demand' letter from CPM claiming I have 28 days to pay or else it will go to their debt recovery agent. Also the overdue charge will increase to £149. Now I sent them a letter 2 week ago asking for a POPLA code to which they haven't responded, should I write again still asking for one? I've also been emailing the landowner who seem totally disinterested in my situation, I feel like I should keep on in the chance he changes his mind. I've also now sent him photo evidence of areas of the car park closed off by barriers and JCB's making it even harder to park, will these be any good should I go to court?

You won't get a POPLA code - UKCPM is an IPC operator. You've been told that earlier in the thread.

If you've already appealed to UKCPM there's nothing more to do other than ignore anything other than a LBCCC or real court papers.

What will be 'good' or 'bad' should anything 'go to court' will be down to the quality of the defence and to the Judge. The small claims court is a lottery.

Siyborg_66 wrote: »

Thanks Umkomaas, how often do these things go to court? I'm just on the edge now as to whether to just get it out of my life, its been a real pain these last couple of months, and I don't fancy the prospect of going to court if like you say its a lottery.

In the past 2.5 years UKCPM has issued 64,000 tickets. I'd hazard a guess that no more than 50% of those have been paid. From the remaining c32,000 they have had 26 small claims court appearances (and not all of those are necessarily anything to do with parking).

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/UK_Car_Park_Management.html

Even if all were parking charges, the chance of an unpaid ticket being pursued to court is less than 1%. Most PPCs going to court are more interested in multiple ticket cases, but some do pursue single tickets, although it costs them much more than it does to recover their £100 PCN plus around £75-£100 allowable disbursements.

You have, with a good defence (we will help with that here), as good a chance of winning this (with your costs being paid by the PPC) as the PPC does.

But all of this is utterly academic (and shouldn't be on your radar) unless and until court papers are issued. Threats from debt collectors are empty and cannot be pursued by them. Tens of thousands of motorists who have been through the various parking forums are currently ignoring debt collector demands and are unscathed. The PPC network cannot possibly take every single ignorer to court; the small claims court system would be in meltdown.

As you can see, most of the odds are in your favour - so no reason to contemplate any form of payment, IMHO.