Private Parking ticket

crawley_girl

Hi people

Just a quick question:

Is Meteor (on behalf of Southern railway) a private company?

We received a ticket for £50 but it doesn't say PCN on it anywhere, it isn't a council car park nor does it mention the police.

We appealed on the grounds that we went to get some change for the machine and on our return we found the ticket attached to the windscreen. We were gone for no longer than 5 mins and it was our full intention to pay for the ticket. We have not had a response to this letter.

We have however, received a letter from a debt collection agency asking for £120 (original fine plus admin costs).

What to do now? Ignore every single bit of correspondence that comes our way...

Thanks

crawley_girl

Having spent an hr reading this forum, I am 99.99% certain that they are a private company and I will just ignore any future correspondence

bargepole

crawley_girl wrote: »

Having spent an hr reading this forum, I am 99.99% certain that they are a private company and I will just ignore any future correspondence

If it was a legal ticket (i.e. issued under the Railway by-laws) they wouldn't be threatening debt collectors, it would go to Magistrates' Court.

But you can safely ignore this, Meteor are just another variety of PPC scamsters whose fraudulent activities are exposed here daily.

crawley_girl

Thanks... as we thought!

Always nice to have a bit of support

Neil_B

bargepole wrote: »

If it was a legal ticket (i.e. issued under the Railway by-laws) they wouldn't be threatening debt collectors, it would go to Magistrates' Court.

But you can safely ignore this, Meteor are just another variety of PPC scamsters whose fraudulent activities are exposed here daily.

BP. As much as I respect your great knowledge of ppcs, Companies issuing under Rwy byelaws DO use DCAs to try to collect ahead of resorting to Mags.

that said we have seen a number of Meteor ones that purport to be issued under byelaw 14 but in reality are a scam.
-

Coblcris

How does a DCA have any right to a levy imposed by a Magistrate's court ? they don't. A magistrate's court would love the fact that the the PPC was trying to intervene and take the court's money ! Once a PPC claims byelaws and then tries to collect 'on the private side' I don't see how they can turn back or let it go to Magistrate's court. It would be wonderful to see one try but I doubt any of them are that suicidal. The one group of people who know that the PPC game is a scam is the the PPCs themselves.

crawley_girl

The letter has not mentioned about Railway By-laws, just a badly written letter with many spelling mistakes and wrotten grammar.

Still safe to ignore?

Coblcris

Have a wild guess. Do legally enforceable documents with statutory backing come replete with spelling mistakes and poor grammar.
(and if they do are they vaild anyway ?).

crawley_girl

Coblcris wrote: »

Have a wild guess. Do legally enforceable documents with statutory backing come replete with spelling mistakes and poor grammar.
(and if they do are they vaild anyway ?).

Oooooooooooooooooooooooh! Get you!

Neil_B

Well I did say that Meteor, as others have been known to try it on claiming authority under Rwy Byelaws. However, I prefer to play safe in such cases. I can't advise someone to ignore without clarification - which now appears to confirm a scam.

Coblcris wrote: »

How does a DCA have any right to a levy imposed by a Magistrate's court ? they don't. A magistrate's court would love the fact that the the PPC was trying to intervene and take the court's money !

At that point it isn't anything to do with the Mags, they won't have been there. It is quite likely that if they later proceeded to Court that a Mag would appreciate any effort to collect due amounts beforehand in an attempt not to bother the Court.

Moreover, they DO, do this. I cite train penalty fares for which DCAs are used by IRCAS (as an example) before instigating Court proceedings.