Parking fine from LCP/Roxburghe

Fuzzy_Dunlop_3

I received a parking fine back in December from LCP informing me that I was parked on their private land without obtaining a ticket on 2 occasions for 20mins each, they issued me with a fine of £50 for each ticket. I sent them a letter explaining I was not the driver at the time but they did not respond until a week ago stating that they have passed the case on to a debt recovery agency by the name of roxburghe. I re-sent the letter via email to LCP & Roxburghe and I am now being harassed and threatened for payment by the wonderful staff at Roxburghe. What should I do as the fines total over £300! Thanks in advance :beer:

HO87

Firstly, what you have received are not fines - no private organisation can "fine" anybody - only the courts can do so. What you have are legally ambiguous invoices inviting you to settle a debt that LCP assert exists. If such a debt actually exist then the only person that LCP could ever legally pursue is the driver at the time and no one else. Unfortunately, they only have you as a target and their tactics are intended to scare you into paying because they have no other route to follow.

Secondly, Roxburghe's - another regular for comment on this forum - is simply a debt collector that has no more power than you or I to enforce a debt. They can shout, scream, cajole, plead and might even threaten but at the end of the day the worse they can legally do is to jump up and down, stamp their feet; send out letters with scary sized fonts and red ink and make phone calls. They cannot make you pregnant; blacken you credit record or just send bailiffs in to seize your goods - least ways not without the matter having gone to court, their client winning and you to have failed to pay the court ordered amount within 28 days. The chances of all of that happening is somewhere between nil and zero.

For Roxburghe's to take you to court then they would have had to have purchased the debt from LCP and LCP would have had to have written to you informing you of that fact. No letter from LCP telling you that they had "sold" or "assigned" the debt = Roxburghe's threats disappearing like so much smoke on the wind.

Besides. You don't owe anyone anything and when Roxburghe's call next time tell them that you deny the debt and that any further calls from them (or from them pretending to be Graham White's solicitors - one of their favourite ploys) will be regarded as harassment and reported to the Office of Fair Trading. (via Trading Standards).

Finally, Roxburghe's are currently being investigated by the OFT who have told them that they are "minded to revoke" their debt collectors licence.

The standard advice here is that you make no contact with LCP or Roxburghe's - other than in response to their phone calls and I'd therefore suggest that you ignore all of their future letters. Have a look at the "stickies" at the top of this board to see the type of letter chain you are likely to receive. Then sit back and join the rest of us here who ignore these chancers who are seeking to make a lot of money out of persuading people that they actually being "fined" when all they send out are simply invoices.

RENEGADE_2

I believe your letters will be coming from West Byfleet in Surrey, check the addresses on these letters which land on your mat. Upon establishing it to be Roxburghe litter, send it back to the letterbox marked "Refused - return to sender". They'll soon get the message after three or four more.