Husband parked at Surrey Quays for too long - what to do

loverofwine

Thanks to all. have sent him off with your case taffy. He seems happier. Makes me sooo cross. The trip to the cinema/restaurant for DS3 cost a fortune. That they think they can get more out of us......

Coupon-mad

DO NOT LET HIM PAY THIS SCAM!
:eek:


Like all the other posters on this board, he has a fake PCN.

The registered keeper can just ignore it and ignore the other letters that will arrive. The letters are easy to ignore and laugh at, when they arrive at the address of someone who knows it's all hogwash and not a real parking ticket at all.

The whole scam of fake PCNs relies firstly on people's ignorance of the fact that a random private company can't fine anyone, and secondly on their natural fear of parking tickets and the escalating costs/bailiff scenario. So PPCs copy the look of a real parking ticket and - hey presto! - the cash rolls in from victims who know no better.

There is no fine, no CCJ, no bailiff, no debt, no effect on credit rating, no Court, no repercussions at all from a pathetic, unenforceable fake PCN (= invoice) issued by a random third party.

Tick off the threatening letters here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion - read the answer at the bottom, it's very clear! - here.

So I recommend he/the registered keeper just plays snap with the threatograms from debt collectors - choose to ignore and laugh at the scammer and their attempt to extort money. It's like deleting obvious phishing emails from your 'Bank'; it's a very similar con based on impersonation of authority. As the barrister says in that last link, these companies have no more right to fine you for your parking than your neighbour does!

The other option is an appeal followed by a POPLA independent appeal but what's the point except if he goes into it with his eyes wide open to the whole scam, only to cost Parking Eye money (they have to fund the POPLA stage at £27 plus VAT per case). And it's an untried new second stage appeal and he overstayed so I wouldn't bother to raise this as one of the first new appeals, personally. Just ignore.

My car overstayed in car parks twice, once 5 years ago and once this year (different companies but same scam). Yes the car overstayed but that does NOT mean that an extortionate amount is suddenly payable to a third party - who neither own, nor lease, nor maintain the car park - operating a practice akin to a protection racket!

I just laughed at the fake PCNs and the letters - he can surely spot the scam from the threatogram pictures in that first link I gave to the letter chains thread; it's easy to see through the threats. This is NOT an untried option, some of us here on this forum have been telling people to ignore these fake PCNs every single day for around six YEARS! Loads and loads of poeple have ignored and nothing happened beyond the junk mail - you can find such cases by searching this parking forum for the keywords 'nothing happened'...

Oh...and my 18 yr old niece has laughed at six fake PCNs from Parking Eye for overstaying. So the final advice if someone is still wavering is to grow a pair...if my teenage new-driver niece can suss it's all a scam then so can everyone.