Civil Enforcement Limited

Sarah1973

Hello, is anyone able to help me with this one?

I parked at a McDonalds in West Sussex displaying a notice that 90 minutes parking duration. Sadly, I exceeded this by just 80 seconds (!) and have received a letter from Civil Enforcement Limited, entitled Parking Contravention, Enforcement Notice. This demands £125 or £75 if paid within 2 weeks.

It threatens action if not paid withing 28 days and further additional costs.

Should I go back and check what the notice in the car park reads?

Please help me to decide? Should I pay this or ignore it?

sarahg1969

Have you read any of the other threads on this board? What do they say?

esmerobbo

80 seconds!! So that's £1.56 a second!

Have a look around and you will see what you need to do is ignore CEL!

Hadeon

I second the advice already given.

IGNORE & do not be tempted to contact/respond to these scambags in any way, shape or form, no matter what rubbish may subsequently drop thro' your letterbox (properly sealed court papers being the only exception to the 'ignore' advice, BUT believe you me, this WILL NOT happen-I have only mentioned this in the interests of accuracy).

I post from personal experience of these charlatans.
You have nothing whatsoever to fear from them.

worried_jim

Put it in the bin as with any other begging letters you get from these scumbags and have a happy new year.

Hadeon

worried_jim wrote: »

Put it in the bin as with any other begging letters you get from these scumbags and have a happy new year.

Sorry wj, I cannot agree with that - such correspondence should never be just 'binned' - ignored but filed away,certainly.

pendulum

I've been there twice! Ignore CEL. I found they don't bother you too much, you get the usual letter to start with, maybe a reminder, and then a big red letter, after that it all goes quiet

Just hold your nerve. I know it's hard when they're threatening increasing fines and so on as I've been there myself but I am glad I did.

The_Slithy_Tove

Sarah1973 wrote: »

Please help me to decide? Should I pay this or ignore it?

Ooh, ooh, please, sir! I know this one! It's "ignore", isn't it?

Don't bother revisiting the site. The signs, the letters, everything related is just an attempt to be some kind of authority that they aren't. The losses to the landowner/tenant are zero, and so the amount they can claim from you are also zero.

You'll get some more letters with more and more red ink, and making larger and larger threats. They are all meaningless. Ignore the lot, and they'll dry up soon enough.

vax2002

This is a scam that impersonates authority, look at the name Civil Enforcement Limited
A word play on Civil parking officers used by local councils.
They copy, word play, use snippets of statements you may have heard of in real parking tickets, send letters making threats of things you may have heard of that have happened to people who dont pay real parking tickets, copy, text, copy letters, use checked borders and official words.
However the whole thing is a huge SCAM based on impersonation of real parking tickets, it can be very convincing, in fact it is estimated around 60% of the population are so stupid they are taken in by the scam.
If 99% were taken in by this elaborate scam, it still would be a scam.
It is built upon the law that you can sue for loss or harm, so if you cause loss to a land holder they may sue you for that loss.
However that is all they can sue you for.
If I charge £10 an hour in my car park and you stay an hour without paying you owe me £10.
Anything else is a penalty, which private companies can not charge, they are illegal.
So in your case, the car park was free, you cost them nothing by your 80 second crime, you owe them nothing, they can sue you for nothing.
However as they are scammers, they will not listen to reason, there is no appeal, thats a scam as well.
They will buy your private information from DVLA, who sell it for £2.50 and send you a chain of standard begging letters, increasing charges, fake threats, fake solicitors, fake debt collectors then go away and pester someone else.
They can not harm your credit rating or anything else, without a court order, which as you owe them nothing, they wont get.
Do not waste your time going back to look at signs, that is playing the game that they want you, the imitation of authority is very good and you will just worry yourself.
Instead what you do is get the flyers they send through the post, write a letter to McDonalds cheif exec thanking him for allowing his scammers to try and steal your money whilst your family enjoyed a meal, but in future, if this is how it treats its customers, NO THANKS, send them each letter you get.
Now the hard bit, learning to IGNORE the parking company, it is very hard for adults as we have become so afraid of authority that we have no spines left, ask a child to demonstrate ignore, they are brilliant at it.
Then once you understand ignore, do it with the parking company and they will give up in a few months.

Coupon-mad

Sarah1973 wrote: »

Hello, is anyone able to help me with this one?

I parked at a McDonalds in West Sussex displaying a notice that 90 minutes parking duration. Sadly, I exceeded this by just 80 seconds (!) and have received a letter from Civil Enforcement Limited, entitled Parking Contravention, Enforcement Notice. This demands £125 or £75 if paid within 2 weeks.

It threatens action if not paid withing 28 days and further additional costs.

Should I go back and check what the notice in the car park reads?

Please help me to decide? Should I pay this or ignore it?

The sticky threads you just need to read are 'PPC letters, what to expect' and 'welcome, please read before posting' with the Watchdog youtube clip.

Those are the only stickies you need to look at to understand this scam and to have your preview of the letters you will be ignoring. It's really really easy, most of us have ignored a PPC threat or ten. Nothing else happens, no Court, no CCJ, no bailiff, no effect on your credit rating. It is all a scam.

demented_weasel

Was the macydee on the A24 south of Horsham? b uck barn?