UKPC charge, embarrassed

Irnbru_3

I was at a retail park couple of hours ago, and I have to admit I parked in a disabled bay, but for my case, it was very bright and the disabled floor markings where a faded off colour white/yellow, I thought it was a parent and child bay as I had my 2 young ones with me.

It does have the signs saying what regulates a fine/ticket etc, for not displaying a disabled badge, even for not parking in between the lines!!

It says on the ticket £50 in 14 days or £90 within 28 days, to which im sure I read £60 on the sign, also says "parked in a disabled persons bay without displaying a valid badge" to put it short.

The "issue time" and "time first seen" are identical and I saw the "warden" walking in my direction from behind me, but yet never stopped me when I left the car to warn me about being there, as if he was waiting for me to leave.

Ive contacted them via their website contesting that it was an honest mistake and £50 is a bit harsh.

Ive read the stickies and other posts saying ignore the ticket and letters, but none of them are in a similar situation to me.

Do I ignore it or pay it as it was in a disabled bay?:(

vax2002

You have not been given a parking ticket or a fine:
From a legal prospective what you have been given is an "invitation to pay a private invoice".
You are legally within your rights to reject the invitation and keep your money:
What will happen is they will buy your private data from DVLA and send a series of menacing letters threatening to take you to court and then more letters from fake debt collectors and fake solicitors again all threatening to take you to court.
They will not take you to court as legally they have no power to fine you or charge you a penalty.
In short it is a scam of impersonation of officialdom and empty threats.
HOW TO DEAL:
IGNORE everything, ignore all letters, ignore all fake solicitors letters and ignore all fake debt collectors.
They will get fed up and move on to another victim.
IGNORE Means exactly that IGNORE, you do not appeal, there is no appeal it is part of the scam, you do not bite back, do not write or do anything to correspond and they will go away, if they call your telephone, do not confirm any information place the handset down and leave it of the hook for ten minutes .
BE WARNED evidence on these and other forums clearly describes how people who do pay these hoping they go away receive further demands for more money, often several hundreds of pounds.

Irnbru_3

vax2002 wrote: »

BE WARNED evidence on these and other forums clearly describes how people who do pay these hoping they go away receive further demands for more money, often several hundreds of pounds.

:eek:

So how come they are on private retail parks then and the owners have not thrown them off, or do the owners get a cut of the money p/m?

efctoffeegirl

Hi this might make you feel better, I was parked in my local retail park in a disabled bay with my blue badge in the right hand side of the window from 6.50 tonight and 7.00pm I received a parking ticket for £90 because my clock had slipped over my badge, on the photo graphs on the UK PC appeals page and u can see that both cards are in the window, I have appealled and i'm waiting to here, im not sure what to do if the appeal doesnt work. any ideas would be welcome x

Coupon-mad

Irnbru wrote: »

Ive read the stickies and other posts saying ignore the ticket and letters, but none of them are in a similar situation to me.

All of them are in the same situation as you - they have all had a fake PCN. No other details are important (although you do need to be careful not to take up disabled bays of course, purely so they are kept free for those who need them - but I reckon you know that ).

Some retail parks get a cut of the money; some like Tesco even put up misleading signs saying they give 'all profits' to charity from these fake parking tickets. A victim of the scam may think, 'oh, never mind then, at least most of my fifty quid goes to charity'. But no, only about 5% or less might go to charity and the rest is of course pocketed by the PPCs, as this money-making con is their business.

In fact most retailers receive nothing for the 'fake PCN scam' parasite's dodgy 'services'. They are usually clueless and actually believe that their stupid rip-off PPC can fine people, huge retail giants actually fall for the spiel 'we can sort out your parking problems for free, guv' (like a protection racket).

You have read the stickies? Have you seen the Watchdog video? If not then read 'welcome please read before posting' and watch it.

Coupon-mad

efctoffeegirl wrote: »

Hi this might make you feel better, I was parked in my local retail park in a disabled bay with my blue badge in the right hand side of the window from 6.50 tonight and 7.00pm I received a parking ticket for £90 because my clock had slipped over my badge, on the photo graphs on the UK PC appeals page and u can see that both cards are in the window, I have appealled and i'm waiting to here, im not sure what to do if the appeal doesnt work. any ideas would be welcome x

You have not appealed I am afraid. You have fallen for the PPC's phishing exercise, to gather information and to make you think it's a real parking ticket.

We can save you the wait 'regrettably, your appeal (as if! think about it, private fake PCN scam!!) has been unsuccessful'. UKPC 'appeals page' my bum!

Obviously you just ignore the scam. Read the stickies please, 'welcome please read before posting' has info and a Watchdog clip which should explain what you SHOULD have done with the flyer on your windscreen (it was not a parking ticket).

Both you and Irnbru will have top put up with 'scary latters' from debt collectors. Not exactly scary when you are expecting them all and can just play snap with them - see the top thread for pics of the debt collector and 'let's pretend we are solicitors' letter-chains.

This is no biggie, easy to ignore but for goodness sake take off the rose coloured specs and see this con for what it is!

Irnbru_3

As said I have appealed, but have filled in the name and address form with my name and address and referred to myself as "I" in the appeal, is this basically admitting I was the driver?, or could be the name and address on the form known as the owner and "I" was the driver not the owner?

Ive got it in my head now that:

1) Get them to prove who the driver was, dont admit it was you
2) Ignore everything they send you
3) £50-90 does not cover the owners loss of income and PPC admin fees etc

Am I right...ish?

pogofish

efctoffeegirl wrote: »

Hi this might make you feel better, I was parked in my local retail park in a disabled bay with my blue badge in the right hand side of the window from 6.50 tonight and 7.00pm I received a parking ticket for £90 because my clock had slipped over my badge, on the photo graphs on the UK PC appeals page and u can see that both cards are in the window, I have appealled and i'm waiting to here, im not sure what to do if the appeal doesnt work. any ideas would be welcome x

The only idea I can suggest is that you go and look at your local Blue Badge handbook/website and stop worrying about these jokers.

You will see it is clearly stated that the Blue Badge scheme does not apply on private property! The Equality Act applies here and store operators are required to provide reasonable adjustment for all people disabled under the terms of the act, BB or no BB!

So beyond a courtesy, these spaces have no legal meaning whatsoever here and any ticket issued on the basis of a Blue Badge being improperly displayed is quite false and no more enforcable than the rest of the PPCs toilet paper - Which you can see in the Letter Chain sticky at the top of the board!

If you are going to contact anyone over this, I suggest you get in touch with the manager of the store you visited and put the fear of god into them about a complaint to the EHRC and possible criminal action for allowing discrimination.

The_Slithy_Tove

Irnbru wrote: »

As said I have appealed, but have filled in the name and address form with my name and address and referred to myself as "I" in the appeal, is this basically admitting I was the driver?, or could be the name and address on the form known as the owner and "I" was the driver not the owner?

Ive got it in my head now that:

1) Get them to prove who the driver was, dont admit it was you
2) Ignore everything they send you
3) £50-90 does not cover the owners loss of income and PPC admin fees etc

Am I right...ish?

Ish.

#1. Wrong. Don't engage with them in any way. They rely on righteous indignation to get their victims to communicate with them to try to prove they're right. All futile.

#2. Correct!

#3. It more than covers it, which is why it's punitive and therefore an unlawful or unfair contract, and thus completely unenforceable.

Irnbru_3

In relation to Pogofish's reply to Toffeegirl regarding disabled badges, I looked at the Blue badge scheme website, and saw this:

The Blue Badge scheme. The Blue Badge scheme provides a national range of parking concessions for disabled people with severe mobility problems who have difficulty using public transport. The scheme is designed to help severely disabled people to travel independently, as either a driver or passenger, by allowing them to park close to their destination. The national concessions only apply to on-street parking. They do not apply to off-street car parks, such as supermarket car parks, or privately owned roads, such as those you find at airports.

I wonder if UKPC know this?:D

AlexisV

UKPC have never done court anyway as far as I know.