parking fine- debt collection company letter

ladyluck1970

Can any one offer me advice, APOCA operate the parking at the hospital where i work in stoke on trent, i have had several tickets , i always right with my reason fo not paying, sending photos etc. I have never paid, partly because as staff we pay an annual fee for parking which our trust can not provide for all the staff? there is building work going on and the staff parking areas change almost on a weekly basis, so all in all theres no were to park, or its too confusiing to work out whats for staff and for visitors and we are being charged for a service that cannot be fully provided, surley this is not legal. Anyway my problem now is I recieved a ticket back in july , sent my usual letter etc but have now received a letter from a debt collection company saying APOCA have not received my orginal letter of "im not paying....." and now want £88.00, the orginal ticket was £40.00 but discounted if you pay up within 7 days to £15.00 there is no number to call this company ROXBURGHE-THEY HAVE GIEN ME 14 DAYS OR FURTHER ACTION WILL BE TAKEN HELP

AltheHibby

Don't panic. Coupon-Mad or one of the other regulars will be along to give you good advice. I suggest you check back here in the morning.

Coupon-mad

ladyluck1970 wrote: »

Can any one offer me advice, APOCA operate the parking at the hospital where i work in stoke on trent, i have had several tickets , i always right with my reason fo not paying, sending photos etc. I have never paid, partly because as staff we pay an annual fee for parking which our trust can not provide for all the staff? there is building work going on and the staff parking areas change almost on a weekly basis, so all in all theres no were to park, or its too confusiing to work out whats for staff and for visitors and we are being charged for a service that cannot be fully provided, surley this is not legal. Anyway my problem now is I recieved a ticket back in july , sent my usual letter etc but have now received a letter from a debt collection company saying APOCA have not received my orginal letter of "im not paying....." and now want £88.00, the orginal ticket was £40.00 but discounted if you pay up within 7 days to £15.00 there is no number to call this company ROXBURGHE-THEY HAVE GIEN ME 14 DAYS OR FURTHER ACTION WILL BE TAKEN HELP

You don't want to be calling Roxburghe, they will log your phone number and then harass you with calls. If they don't know your phone number it's just a case of ignoring their junk mail and it's EASY. NO FURTHER ACTION IS TAKEN EXCEPT THEY SEND YOU MORE PREDICTABLE LETTERS.

Do not pay, do not appeal, these are not fines and nothing will happen.

Like all the other posters on this board, you have fake PCNs there and the letters from Roxburghe are part of the scam, followed by letters from Graham White...then nothing because they give up.

When dealing with "tickets" from private parking companies (PPCs) our advice is to ignore them as long as you or a relative are the registered keeper, because you are the one getting and ignoring the junk mail which is fine. It's only a problem with a company, lease or hire car because those firms tend to just pay the fake PCN as if it's a real one then charge an arm and a leg in admin fees for 'handling it' on top of also passing on the 'charge' to the driver.

But clearly you are getting the letters, so can safely ignore the lot! You should just be laughing and playing snap with this letter chain by now!

Tick off the threatening letters here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion here.

HTH, have a look at the links, you will see that the letter you have got is a standard template and part of a well-known chain of rubbish. Much like phishing emails it's all a scam and can be ignored.

Nozone

It's written somewhere deep in the fabric of universe that if at any point you receive anything from Roxburghe, you can safely ignore and nothing will happen (other than them sending you some badly typed letters full of 100% bogus threats). I know full well as I've had the misfortune of dealing with Roxburghe. The have about as much power to do anything as your left sock does.

So yeah, Coupon-mad is 100% correct, I thought I'd throw a post in to help reassure you.

Barneysmom

Ignore then sweetheart. They're just after your money, bunch of cowboys.

suepaige

i work there too and have had the same trouble.

Stephen_Leak

Thank you for starting a new thread.

Roxburghe are debt collectors. This means that they have the same legal powers to collect money as you or I. Unfortunately, they will threaten you with every kind of financial and legal unpleasantness imaginable to try and intimidate you into paying.

Roxburghe are under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading, who are "minded to revoke their licence".

The next and final stage will be a couple more letters from a solicitor, Graham White.

Graham White are the same people as Roxburghe. Compare the signatures on their letters. They are solicitors, but only because they pay a geriatric solicitor, Michael “not the brightest button ever sewn on the frock coat of justice” Sobell, to use his name.

Graham White are under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for threatening people with legal action that they can't actually take.

Continue to ignore everything you get from them. Soon, they’ll run out of empty threats and stop throwing good money after bad.

bazster

As regards APCOA and Roxburghe, you have good advice above.

As regards the fact that you have already paid for parking and yet it's not being provided, I would do this:

- send copies of the APCOA/Roxburghe letters to whomever at the hospital/trust is responsible for administering the staff parking

- tell them that you have no intention of paying APCOA/Roxburghe because you've already paid for parking, you're not going to pay again, and it's not your problem that the parking you've already paid for is not being properly provided

- invite THEM to pay APCOA/Roxburghe

- and copy all this to your manager.

Sir_Roger_deLodger

I take it this is the University Hospital of North Staffs?
I can assure you that nothing will happen, I collected loads of these last year when my dad was in the hospital.

Just ignore the letters, as advised.

Are you in a union? If so complain to them about your employer charging you for parking but not providing a space.

LouisaCase

Hi,
I just wondered if this advice is still current?

I got a parking ticket after being parked at the hospital in a staff area. I didn't realise this was a staff area.

I helped my husband into the hospital and came back out to put a ticket on, but I had already been charged. I was under the impression that you get 30 mins free parking. Maybe this is not true if it's staff.
The signs are only small and I totally missed them

I sent a letter asking them to reconsider the charges and explained the situation. I had no reply to this letter and then got another letter off them with increased charges, so I wrote another letter and enclosed the letter I originally sent. Again I heard nothing.

I have now got a letter from Roxburghe for £133 and asking me to pay in 14 days.

Shall I ignore these letters or has the law on this changed? Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Stroma

Please create your own unique thread below, as this is a very old thread - thanks
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163