Parking fine and APCOA advice

Lewa02

Hi All,

I know I might be duplicating something that's already been discussed so apologies if that's the case.....

Just before Christmas I parked for two days in my local train station car park and paid for my ticket with my debit card. The machine printed my receipt but no ticket. Unsure what to do I spoke to an employee of the train station who advised me to speak to someone in the onsite office that is in charge of the car park - which I did. I explained that, in the absence of any other options, I had displayed the receipt as proof of payment and asked what I should do. She said not to worry and if I had any problems when I got back to go back and see her again.
By the time I arrived back two days later the office was shut and I had two(!) parking fines stuck on my windscreen. I did go back to the office a couple of times but no one was there so I wrote to APCOA like the ticket said, explaining exactly what happened and that I was told by car park staff that it would be fine. I have now received a letter from them saying the notice has been upheld but the case is on hold. If I want them to go away they want £50 from me.
To top it off my work (it is a work car I was driving) have received a demanding letter from Roxburghe Debt Collectors stating they want £128 in 14 days or they'll come to the office!

Really need some guidance on this please....

muckybutt

Likely to be a private parking ticket, look at the back if it says appeals to apcoa po box whatever then its private and can be ignored, if its a bonafide railway ticket it will mention magistrates court.

Sir_Roger_deLodger

Lewa02 wrote: »

To top it off my work (it is a work car I was driving) have received a demanding letter from Roxburghe Debt Collectors stating they want £128 in 14 days or they'll come to the office!

Really need some guidance on this please....

Make sure your boss understands that this is not a fine but an unenforceable invoice, and that Roxburghe are a bunch of chancers with no power to actually do anything. You don't want him paying it then trying to deduct it from your pay.

Coupon-mad

Just ignore it and the letters, show your fleet manager this link and tell them it's a cowboy fake PCN:

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2009/5/28/question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/30698/

If it makes your workplace and you feel better then tell your work to briefly reply naming you as the driver and insisting the company cease any further contact with them as they are not liable. All that will mean is that the letter-chain (Roxburghe/Graham White which are mentioned all over forums!) will come to you instead. And you must ignore it all.

But your workplace do not have to reply or worry about these letters at all! The owner/keeper has NO liability, ZERO and cannot be pursued about this parking charge (which is not a real fine). You being the driver do not have to pay either, you did nothing wrong, there's clearly no breach of contract case to answer if they ever bothered with an actual Small Claim (no chance) so stop taking them so seriously!

Did you really believe there was an 'appeals process' because the fake PCN told you there was? Well there isn't one, all cases are declined by PPCs except the odd retail park bogus PCN where the retailer tells them to cancel it.. Hope you are not going to believe APCOA are going to take you to Court because their threatograms say they are about to? They won't, read up on it all!

There's tons on the internet about private parking tickets and loads about APCOA:

Here's a Google search result for MSE forum threads on APCOA

Here's a Google result for pepipoo forum threads on APCOA

Watchdog on private parking tickets

And as for Roxburghe/Graham White, just put either name into your search engine and the words 'private parking ignore' and you'll find pages and pages about their little game.

HTH

muckybutt

Lewa02 wrote: »

Hi All,

I know I might be duplicating something that's already been discussed so apologies if that's the case.....

Just before Christmas I parked for two days in my local train station car park and paid for my ticket with my debit card. The machine printed my receipt but no ticket. Unsure what to do I spoke to an employee of the train station who advised me to speak to someone in the onsite office that is in charge of the car park - which I did. I explained that, in the absence of any other options, I had displayed the receipt as proof of payment and asked what I should do. She said not to worry and if I had any problems when I got back to go back and see her again.
By the time I arrived back two days later the office was shut and I had two(!) parking fines stuck on my windscreen. I did go back to the office a couple of times but no one was there so I wrote to APCOA like the ticket said, explaining exactly what happened and that I was told by car park staff that it would be fine. I have now received a letter from them saying the notice has been upheld but the case is on hold. If I want them to go away they want £50 from me.
To top it off my work (it is a work car I was driving) have received a demanding letter from Roxburghe Debt Collectors stating they want £128 in 14 days or they'll come to the office!

Really need some guidance on this please....

I missed the Roxburghe bit.....definately a piece of pap invoice from a piece of pap parking company, not an official railway parking ticket so ignore them.

Lewa02

Thanks very much for the info/advice. Having never had a parking ticket before in my life I did think it was genuine and valid so I can only claim naivety for that, but I will follow all advice and ignore any further correspondence from them about it and also tell my work that they should do the same.

Thanks again.

muckybutt

Print this out and show it to your work http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2009/5/28/question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/30698/