Debt Recovery Plus Ltd - Park Direct ltd

Eskie

I've just received a letter from a company named Debt Recovery Plus Ltd which has my correct name and address and starts off by saying that "NOTICE OF INTENDED LITIGATION
Further to our previous correspondence. To prevent the above action, payment must be sent in full within the next 7 days or telephone us on 0844 61 0965 immediately."

The letter contained details of a vehicle registration number that I've never heard of, and have certainly never driven, the offence apparently happened on 04/07/09 for the amount of £120.

I'm confused by so many aspects of this letter.
1. I've never driven the car mentioned
2. I've never received any correspondence from this company or any other company on this matter previously
3. At the time of the alleged offence I lived at a different address, and although I do have my mail redirected from my old address, this letter was addressed to my current address.

I'm baffled that this company can claim that I owe money and also claim that they've written to me previously and that I've ignored those letters which is completely untrue as I've never received any letters previously from either Park Direct Ltd or Debt Recovery Plus Ltd.

I just did a google search on this matter and on this forum and a couple of others it seems that Debt Recovery ltd have previous form on matters like this and the general advice was to ignore them, but generally it was for matters where people had admitted they had parked in such and such a place, but my case is quite different as they seem to have just made up details of a vehicle and then claimed that I owe money for a parking ticket!
There is no mention of where the supposed parking offence occurred.

Interested to hear suggestions?
Thank you.

Coblcris

It may means that their mass mailing software has glitched.
Or yours could be a one off.

Whichever it is, just keep the letter and the envelope safely plus any follow ups.

And ignore them all.

RobertoMoir

I suggest you mentally file a "notice of completely ignoring the powerless loonies, who are in the wrong anyway".

As Coblcris says, ignore them. They have no powers anyway - even if the car was yours they'd still be scamsters trying it on.

Fergie76

I am no expert, but what would concern me, no not the ticket, but why you were linked with this car? As far as I am aware, but somebody with more knowledge might want to confirm (Coupon-Mad?), companies like this get the name and address from DVLA, so it might be worth contacting them to make sure they don't have you connected with this car?

RobertoMoir

That's a good point, Fergie76. Could just be one of those things but now you mention it, I'd want to check if it was me

taffy056

If your reg is close to the other car, it could be human error, though calling the scammers human is stretching it a bit

Coblcris

It may well be that the Private Parking Company has used an alternative source for information, a cheaper one but an erroneous one.

The Data Protection Act may come into play if so.

Eskie

Thanks for all the replies much appreciated.

My car reg isn't close in any way to the one on this letter so it couldn't even be claimed that it was human error.
I may try to contact the DVLA to ask about this to check that they don't have me as having anything to do with this vehicle.
How easy or otherwise is it to check such details with the DVLA?

Coblcris

It is simple, use e-mail.

Sir_Roger_deLodger

It's worth contacting the DVLA just to make sure, but I don't think they will have you as the RK of this vehicle, otherwise you would have been receiving tax disc reminders, speeding tickets etc.

Bearing in mind that PPCs are fraudsters, they could just be picking names at random from the electors register or phone book etc, hoping someone might be daft enough to pay.

taffy056

Wonder if they'd want you to pay the ticket even though the car has nothing to with you ? It would be interesting to appeal to find out what they say

I would lay odds on them saying the appeal failed and must pay lol