PCCN for a Van parked in a car bay.

VonDuncan

Good morning.

I have tried trawling through the forums and google searches looking for more on this subject, but unfortunately have been unable to anybody in a similar situation, so I thought I would ask for advice.

My brother has just received a Parking Contravention Charge Notice for parking his van in a car park that has seperate bays for van parking. This is signposted at the entrance to the car park, however only the van bays are marked for vans only, whereas cars are not marked for cars only. He has accepted that he made a mistake, but the fine seems massively disproportionate. He was unaware of the different bays in this car park, and was not attempting to illigitimately save money on his parking ticket.

Car parking is £1.70 per hour, vans are £2 per hour. On his two hour stay the car park will have only lost out on 60p, but the charge is £100 reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days. It is an NCP car park in Suffolk, so no London charging.

The van was not a commercial vehicle and was completely within it's own bay, so not obstructing anybody else.

As it stands, the ticket has only just been received so no responses or payments have been sent, so I was wondering if anybody has had a similar experience, or might be able to offer any advice regarding this.

Many thanks.

give_them_FA

If it's a private car park (sounds like it is) then it can safely be ignored. NCP will write letters but NEVER take it any further. The nature of the "contravention" is irrelevant.

Just make sure it isn't issued on behalf of a council (to whom does it say the money should be paid?) but it certainly sounds private and the title of the FAKE ticket (PCCN) is calculated to make it sound official when it's.... fake.

Worry ye not.

vax2002

It is a fake parking ticket designed to impersonate authority, in other words a scam.
It looks official and claims powers>
The Truth is it has none and is full of bull and fake threats.

From a legal standing it is a "invitation to pay a private invoice"
They have no legal power to issue any fine or penalty and can do very little other than beg for it in thinly veiled threatening letters.
IGNORE, stay IGNORING
the Impersonation will change to other authority characters such as fake debt collectors and solicitors making threats of fake court action using slither words such as MAY, COULD, MIGHT, POSSIBILITY again all fake then they will give up and go away.

taffy056

It sounds like a private parking invoice to me as well, and a penalty definitely which is not legal! Where is the loss to NCP in this case? How can they claim there is one ? Only a loss can be claimed for, they will have a real hard claiming in court that there is one, even if it is 60p. an unfair term and will be laughed out of a court if it ever went there.

VonDuncan

@Give them FA: I have checked the ticket and payment must be made to NCP limited, not a council.

So would you all recommend definitely not replying at all? Not even sending them the 60p to cover any supposed 'loss'?

Thanks for your advice. Very quick reponses!

vax2002

Have they asked for 60 p
When they do, then consider sending them it.

taffy056

VonDuncan wrote: »

@Give them FA: I have checked the ticket and payment must be made to NCP limited, not a council.

So would you all recommend definitely not replying at all? Not even sending them the 60p to cover any supposed 'loss'?

Thanks for your advice. Very quick reponses!

Well the recommended way is just to ignore them completely, that way always works with NCP as they never do court despite the outlandish threats to do so. One thing though the vehicle is not leased or hired or anything is it ?

give_them_FA

I would simply ignore it completely. You can say, yes, you technically owe them 60p, but that's cancelled by their attempt to extort a far greater sum that they are not entitled to.

So the advice is, simply file all letters under "ignore". NCP will not take you to court, though they threaten to. They are far too sensible for that when they make a nice living from the people that don't understand it is all a con and pay them. Why should they rock the boat by trying iffy court cases? They leave that to the idiots in the smaller companies (sorry, forum joke).

Just relax and forget it happened. There is no come-back at all.


Edit: Yes, good question from Taffy. Is the vehicle registered in your brother's name? If it isn't (hired/leased) further action IS required, though that doesn't include payment, lol- come back on that point.

VonDuncan

It is registered in his name.

In that case I shall advise him to ignore the letter and see what happens.

Thanks.

give_them_FA

Well done. We can tell you now what will happen. He will receive a series of letters increasing in ferocity and threat level.

Followed by the disappearance forever of NCP.

If you want a preview, take a look in the sticky near the top of the forum thread list. They are boringly predictable.