CPS Midlands - Advice needed please

Kit603

Hello,

I received a ticket from CPS Midlands whilst working. I was making a delivery to a pub and was parked in their loading bay (with the manager's permission) for approx 20 mins whilst loading/unloading. When I came back out from dropping off some equipment I had a ticket stuck to my windscreen for £75 for being parked in a restricted zone of a carpark (There were no signs anywhere to say it was a restricted area).

I asked the manager of the pub for advice (as the manager had directed me to park there) and the manager said that he gets tickets on a weekly basis and that his employees, especially his bouncers on a Fri/Sat get tickets all the time and that I should ignore it. The manager also directed me here and said that i'd get a series of serious looking letters but to ignore them and that he's never been taken to court.

I spoke to my employer about the ticket (because there is a policy that the employees must pay for any tickets) and my employer agreed to ignore it after reading info on this site. My employer is a small family-run business with less than 5 vehicles.

My employer has received a notice to owner demanding the payment so they sent out the template from this site to say they were not the driver at the time and were not willing to disclose the driver. However, they received a response from CPS Midlands stating that they're under legal obligation to disclose the driver. They ignored this letter and they have now received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd stating that they were in breach of the agreed terms and conditions regarding parking on their client's private land and that they've been instructed to recover monies as the driver at the time the vehicle was parked.

The amount has now increased to £125.00. I'm not sure what to do now and my employer is getting worried aswell as they don't have the money to pay the £125 and cannot risk going to court.

I'd welcome any advice from people that have dealt with either of these companies before.

The_Slithy_Tove

You and your employer have been doing exactly the right thing in ignoring all the correspondence, and should continue to do so. The letters you/they are receiving are all part of the standard letter chain. All threats of debt collection, obligation to disclose information, etc. are pure bluster and complete rubbish. Do not let yourself or your employer be taken in by the increasingly hysterical tone of the letters.

Ignore, and continue to ignore.

trisontana

CPS are lying when they say the owner is obliged to tell them who was driving.

halibut2209

The above is all true, but if your employer starts to get anxious, then tell them to inform CPS you were driving. Then you can ignore the letters instead of them

Last thing you want to do is upset your employer.

taffy056

Bravo for you and your employers for ignoring the scam, they have no legal right to take you to court as they don't actually own the land that they harass people from. So just ignore them and thankfully you have have your employers on board with this.

ManxRed

Kit603 wrote: »

However, they received a response from CPS Midlands stating that they're under legal obligation to disclose the driver.

I'd be sending a copy of this letter to your local Trading Standards people.

They won't do court. They'd be insane to even try. You'd win hands down.

ppc_guy

The owner of CPS Midlands one Mr Alain Hutton has been seen operating as a VI with no license too...

HardWorker2010_2

Get your employer to demand a £50 'admin fee' to cover the costs of finding out who was the driver on that day. If the PPC are stupid enough to pay I suggest you have a few drinks to celebrate, paid for by the PPC....

Kit603

Thank you everybody for your advice with this.

I've today received a letter from a company called Zenith Collection, which was titled "Notice of Intention to Commence Legal Proceedings". The letter states that they've been instructed by their client, CPS Midlands, to deal with the contravention and that despite their offer for reduced payment to settle the account (which we have never actually been offered) we have still not paid.

Should I continue to ignore or is this a more serious letter? Does anybody have any experience with Zenith Collections, particularly in conjuction with CPS Midlands?

trisontana

Not serious at all. Just keep ignoring.

The_Slithy_Tove

Absolutely continue to ignore. This is just standard procedure and all part of the intimidation tactics. Zenith have no powers to do anything but ask for the money - they are completely toothless. Nothing will come of it.