Civil enforcement ltd.

ManxRed

Erm, £2.50 a pop revenue on several million PPC requests for DVLA Registered Keeper data every year?

Its a compelling case for the Government to turn a blind eye to all this.

F_The_Gov

ManxRed wrote: »

Erm, £2.50 a pop revenue on several million PPC requests for DVLA Registered Keeper data every year?

Its a compelling case for the Government to turn a blind eye to all this.

The DVLA should get in trouble for that, Data Protection ACT!

Yet, nothing has been done =/

ManxRed

Loads has been done. There has been media pressure from papers like the Daily Mail, and a couple of the people on here and on PePiPoo have campaigned tirelessly against the DVLA to try and prevent them from doing this.

At the moment they hide behind a clause whereby it states that they can release your data if they have 'reasonable cause' to do so. They abuse this clause left right and centre, but catching them red handed and forcing them to tighten up on this flagrant abuse is another matter. That's not to say no one is doing anything about it.

There is a Daily Mail front page story from only a couple of weeks ago highlighting the abuse that goes on within the DVLA on this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123390/7-000-drivers-names-sold-criminals-How-DVLA-21m-selling-details-4-85m-motorists.html

give_them_FA

Money talks. Without access to DVLA records the private parking industry could not exist. Where millions are involved, your rights are not important.

Stephen_Leak

This is our new colleague Nev Metson's field of expertise.

All we need to do is keep up the pressure.

We need to build up a body of evidence of cases where non-AOS PPCs have used info' that they could only have got from the DVLA.

OK, the DVLA will come up with the usual excuses, and say that steps have been taken to stop it happening again.

And then we wait, and catch them out again. They will then have to find a new excuse for this instance, and also one for why it happened again.

And again. And again. And again.

Which PPCs aren't in the AOS?

Kite2010

Here's an idea. Lets make up a fake PPC and send in a paper application to the DVLA getting details for a friend's or family members car claiming to be chasing an unpaid parking ticket.

See if the DVLA will bite on that

Hondadriver_2

Hello all, I received a fine in the post last week from Civil Enforcement Ltd (although it was sent to my old address) asking for payment of a fine which would be reduced if I paid within 14 days. The 14th day is tomorrow. Im just wondering whether to ignore or pay this little beauty.
I basically parked in a superstore carpark after hours. Now normally the signs determine that as customers you can park free for 2 hours. Fine, I do shop there and adhere to those rules. This night I parked from 8.45pm to 12pm as I had met with some friends.
I haven't noticed anything on the sign about being strung up if I park there after hours. What should I do, I'm more than happy to ignore it... but will have a trek down to said car park tonight to see what the sign says. All in all, what do you think? Would like some advice please
Thanks!

ManxRed

It doesn't matter what the sign says, the driver legally owes them the actual losses they incurred as a result of the 'infringement' of their made up rules.

Which is zero.

Ignore them, and do not contact them, and don't mention who was driving. You are not legally obliged to tell them that.

At this point they are stuck. They (and a debt collector and possibly even a pretend solicitor) will send a stream of threatening letters to the registered keeper, threatening court action, CCJs, increased costs, bad credit rating, bailiffs, etc., all of which is absolute tosh.

The driver owes them £0.00.

That's it, in a nutshell.

give_them_FA

Just ignore them. They are not very civil and they never enforce anything.

Rely on a scary name to make people think they are somebodies when... actually... they are nobodies.

The usual try-on, take no notice. None of us ever do. Join the half million drivers a year that just bin these fake tickets.

Stephen_Leak

Hondadriver wrote: »

Hello all, I received a fine in the post last week from Civil Enforcement Ltd (although it was sent to my old address) asking for payment of a fine which would be reduced if I paid within 14 days. The 14th day is tomorrow. Im just wondering whether to ignore or pay this little beauty.
I basically parked in a superstore carpark after hours. Now normally the signs determine that as customers you can park free for 2 hours. Fine, I do shop there and adhere to those rules. This night I parked from 8.45pm to 12pm as I had met with some friends.
I haven't noticed anything on the sign about being strung up if I park there after hours. What should I do, I'm more than happy to ignore it... but will have a trek down to said car park tonight to see what the sign says. All in all, what do you think? Would like some advice please
Thanks!

We do not condone inconsiderate parking, or not paying or overstaying in a pay & display car park. Meanwhile, back in the real world ...

Firstly, the legal stuff.

Any warning signs are usually so badly positioned and worded, that they won’t have created a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and the driver in the first place. (The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997.)

Even if there is a contract, all the car park owner can claim from the driver in damages for any breach of contract is what they’ve lost as a result. If this is a free car park or they paid, this is £0.00. By asking you for more, which is unreasonable, it’s become an unfair contract penalty, which is legally unenforceable. (Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. vs. New Garage & Motor Co. Ltd., House of Lords, 1914.)

Only councils, the police and Transport for London can impose legally enforceable fines or penalties. Private companies can't.

Despite all of this, private parking companies consider that their signs create a fair and legally binding deemed contract between the car park owner and the driver, that their demands are their losses and not fines or penalties, that these are reasonable, and that they’re legally enforceable.

What do you do?

Don’t appeal. They always reject them. What’s in it for them to let anyone off?

What’s in it for them is information. With windscreen tickets, you’ll tell them your name and address, and maybe who was driving at the time. If you don’t, they have to buy the registered keeper details from the DVLA for £2.50.

If you’ve received a letter in the post, they’ve done this already. However, they still need to know the identity of the driver of the vehicle involved at the time, because that’s who the alleged contract was with. If they don’t know who the driver was, they have to make do with chasing the registered keeper. They sometimes say that they have the right to ask for this information. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell them.

However, even if you’ve appealed and confirmed who the driver was, it doesn’t make their actions any less unlawful. It just means that instead of unlawfully harassing the wrong person, they can now unlawfully harass the right person.

What will happen now?

You are going to receive a series of letters from the PPC, then a debt collector and then a solicitor. The debt collector and solicitor are usually also the PPC, but using different headed paper. These will threaten you with all sorts of financial and legal unpleasantness, to try and intimidate you into paying. But, they can't actually do anything, for the same reason that a blackmailer couldn't sue their victim if they didn’t pay.

What should you do?

Ignore everything you get from the PPC and their aliases. Yes, it does seem counter-intuitive to deal with something by ignoring it. But, eventually, they will run out of empty threats to intimidate you with, and stop throwing good money after bad.