Car Stolen! Need advice

baz995

Apologies if this is in the wrong section but i am looking for some help, experience or advice with regards to my friends Elise. He has posted this as his car was taken today:

Facts:

My car has been towed from a legally parked position, on private land, in accordance with all cowboy signage, by a private cowboy parking company - https://www.approvedparking.com

They claim I have a unpaid 'fine' from during an extended time period when the car was not even in the same town. Unsurprisingly, I dispute this!

Furthermore, I have NEVER been contacted by either Approved Parking Services or BE Management regarding the alleged 'fine.'

'Approved Parking Services' act as agents of my estate's management company 'BE Management' (Byrne Estates).

The police keep dismissing this as a civil dispute (despite it being illegal to seize goods over a debt without a court order or warrant). I believe I need to get an injunction at the local courts, first thing in the morning, however to serve this I need to get hold of Approved Parking Services directly, and they are very evasive. I can't get any real information about where to find them. They claim my car is in their storage facility in Maidstone.

Any help would be so much appreciated.

baz995

update: He has been told "A copy of the original clamp-release fee receipt must be enclosed."

I don't have one. I don't have any alleged original fine, I don't have anything to say they've taken my car, I only know it's them that took the car because the security guard watched them doing it.

thescouselander

The details are at the bottom on their website:

Approved Parking Services Ltd
Registered Office: 24 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HP
Company Registration No. 6034246 | Place of Registration England & Wales

baz995

thanks :-) they are saying that the car was illegally parked over 8 months ago and thats why it was taken? no notice, no letters from the original claim, no contact.

vax2002

Make an appointment with the duty inspector at the police station covering the theft and ask him to help you fill in the complaint form for the Police Complaints Commission.
They will soon start taking it more seriously then.
If it was taken from land the agents hold :
The line of attack here is to issue immediate claim via the court for the return of the vehicle or equivalent market value against the management company (agents) , they are responsible for the actions of their agents, let them worry about the parking firm !
The parking company will have many ccj's and wont be in the slightest worried, the management company on the other hand wont be expecting a claim for the value of the car.
Seeking injunction for interference with goods is another line, but it will take time, a CCJ claim landing on the managements desk will soon put the cat in the pigeons