IMPORTANT: Please make sure your posts do not contain any personally identifiable information (both your own and that of others). When uploading images, please take care that you have redacted all personal information including number plates, reference numbers and QR codes (which may reveal vehicle information when scanned).
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

NCP Spanked in Court - Towing for Unpaid Tickets

Options
124

Comments

  • Driver8
    Driver8 Posts: 743 Forumite
    Gryphon005 wrote: »
    This is an ideal opportunity to involve the newly elected Police & Crime Commissioner for Essex, Nick Alston. His web page is here, together with full contact details:
    essex.pcc.police.uk
    (please insert "www." before the address above as I'm not yet able to post links)

    It will give him a chance to show that he is acting "For the People" and is not content with the common police fob-off, "It's a Civil Matter, Sir", when faced with a complaint containing clear evidence of criminal activity. This is a policy matter and needs to be raised at the highest level. The new PCC is the man to do this.

    It's about time the police started acting more like a Service and less like an Authority.

    It's not too late for Essex Police to investigate this matter, despite their past reluctance, so James, I hope you advise Nick Alston of your story and trust that the NCP spanking carries on in the Criminal Courts after your well-deserved victory in the County Court.

    You know something, i like that idea. The police as usual wash their hands of having to do anything for the motorist except rip them off saying it is a civil matter when a PPC gets involved.

    The PPC can get away with sending quasi legal crap out to scare people into paying and it is more or less illegal what they do. It is tantamount to demanding money with menaces, threatening bailiffs and so called "doorstep collections" not to mention the threat of a CCJ should we be silly enough not to pay their scam invoice. We'll see.

    I am now going to go out of my way to get a PPC ticket and save all the crap they send and get the legislation they openly flout and take it to the police and if they refuse to do anything pass it on to the commissioner and see if he gets anything done about it.

    I would urge a lot more people on here to do exactly the same thing. The only way we will get anything done about the fraudsters, liars and thieves is if enough people start complaining to the top and then something maybe done.
  • "It's about time the police started acting more like a Service and less like an Authority."
    Or even better, like a Police Force, rather than the politically correct "service", and start to enforce the law(s) of the land.
  • devonlad
    devonlad Posts: 3,254 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 1 December 2012 at 7:37PM
    great result.. I do like reading about the positive outcomes.

    just a thought but today at tesco they didn't issue tickets but put stickers on cars with warning that either breached two hour time limit or parked in wrong bay. is that normal I parked in disabled bay as kids bay all full. my boy has plaster cast on so parked knowing their was loads of disabled bays free.
    The word about the scammers is spreading like marmite here in the westcountry.
    We workers all love it and the ppc hate it :rotfl:
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 151,138 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    devonlad wrote: »
    great result.. I do like reading about the positive outcomes.

    just a thought but today at tesco they didn't issue tickets but put stickers on cars with warning that either breached two hour time limit or parked in wrong bay. is that normal I parked in disabled bay as kids bay all full. my boy has plaster cast on so parked knowing their was loads of disabled bays free.




    Probably been told by Tesco to only issue warnings in December. I reckon the complaints to Supermarkets ARE being heard...gradually I think it is having some effect.
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
    CLICK at the top or bottom of any page where it says:
    Home»Motoring»Parking Tickets Fines & Parking - read the NEWBIES THREAD
  • trisontana
    trisontana Posts: 9,472 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    On the subject of supermarkets and their PPC goons, I'm surprised that nobody has flagged this up from CAG:-

    http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?374007-Asda-Car-Parks...-A-battlefield-**-Resolved-satisfactorily**

    I took my Grandmother to her local Asda on Sunday (Colchester Store) and as I pulled in there was 4 UKCPL attendants walking about on their phones,
    watching videos and so on at the entrance (Overkill, I thought?).

    As I pulled up into a disabled bay, no less than three of these blokes very nearly ran towards my car to look for the blue badge
    (Which my Grandmother was meticulously setting the time on) as I was walking away from it.

    I couldn't believe it as I looked around, there must have been 20 of them in a 300 slot car park..

    . Are they on commission or something?

    Are Asda bosses being threatened with beatings if this lot aren't allowed to issue invoices? It all seemed a bit odd to me.

    Granny had put the badge up (Kinda') and it was back to front (The wheel chair and serial number weren't showing)
    and as I returned back after 15-20 minutes, there were two of them around my car. Not just waiting, to tell me not to do it again, but issuing a ticket!

    Obviously, once issued, I binned it and told the bloke that he was being completely unreasonable and it'd go no where.

    As I got into the car and started to get going, he then stood behind the car until I got out and asked him what the problem was;

    He said that as I'd thrown it in the bin, he was calling security to come and "Sort me out"?

    Now, I'm a security officer with 3 years under my belt and wasn't phased at all,
    but the Guard arrived with an un-addressed banning letter and told me not to come back again,
    as the car park bloke handed me a freshly issued ticket.

    She was asleep in the car and woke up to this bloke smacking the wiper back down on the windscreen and I'm really not happy with the way it was handled.


    Luckily the supermarket have seen sense, have cancelled the ticket, have lifted the "banning order" and The PPC have been instructed to REMOVE the issuing parking attendants from site.
    What part of "A whop bop-a-lu a whop bam boo" don't you understand?
  • devonlad
    devonlad Posts: 3,254 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 1 December 2012 at 9:10PM
    Coupon-mad wrote: »
    Probably been told by Tesco to only issue warnings in December. I reckon the complaints to Supermarkets ARE being heard...gradually I think it is having some effect.

    when I spoke to assistant manager about the little warning note he was very helpful. I said that they should make the parking bays equal as they get lots of families shopping to. their is about 20 parent spaces and about 70disabled. he did agree. the highlight was when he said said he knew all about ppc and how they operate. maybe the word is spreading . he wasn't aware of mse or peeps
    The word about the scammers is spreading like marmite here in the westcountry.
    We workers all love it and the ppc hate it :rotfl:
  • atilla
    atilla Posts: 862 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    trisontana wrote: »
    On the subject of supermarkets and their PPC goons, I'm surprised that nobody has flagged this up from CAG:-

    http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?374007-Asda-Car-Parks...-A-battlefield-**-Resolved-satisfactorily**

    I took my Grandmother to her local Asda on Sunday (Colchester Store) and as I pulled in there was 4 UKCPL attendants walking about on their phones,
    watching videos and so on at the entrance (Overkill, I thought?).

    As I pulled up into a disabled bay, no less than three of these blokes very nearly ran towards my car to look for the blue badge
    (Which my Grandmother was meticulously setting the time on) as I was walking away from it.

    I couldn't believe it as I looked around, there must have been 20 of them in a 300 slot car park..

    . Are they on commission or something?

    Are Asda bosses being threatened with beatings if this lot aren't allowed to issue invoices? It all seemed a bit odd to me.

    Granny had put the badge up (Kinda') and it was back to front (The wheel chair and serial number weren't showing)
    and as I returned back after 15-20 minutes, there were two of them around my car. Not just waiting, to tell me not to do it again, but issuing a ticket!

    Obviously, once issued, I binned it and told the bloke that he was being completely unreasonable and it'd go no where.

    As I got into the car and started to get going, he then stood behind the car until I got out and asked him what the problem was;

    He said that as I'd thrown it in the bin, he was calling security to come and "Sort me out"?

    Now, I'm a security officer with 3 years under my belt and wasn't phased at all,
    but the Guard arrived with an un-addressed banning letter and told me not to come back again,
    as the car park bloke handed me a freshly issued ticket.

    She was asleep in the car and woke up to this bloke smacking the wiper back down on the windscreen and I'm really not happy with the way it was handled.


    Luckily the supermarket have seen sense, have cancelled the ticket, have lifted the "banning order" and The PPC have been instructed to REMOVE the issuing parking attendants from site.
    Bit of a strange story.
    Last time i was in the office there the TCP gorilla (and i'm being unfair to gorilla's) was summoned by the Admin manager and was verbally ripped to shreds and then summarily thrown off site. No difference so far...but
    The Asda Security Staff categorically have nothing to do with the Parking and do not intervene other than recording on CCTV any incident that they may be aware of.(to cover ALL parties involved).
  • devonlad
    devonlad Posts: 3,254 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Coupon-mad wrote: »
    Probably been told by Tesco to only issue warnings in December. I reckon the complaints to Supermarkets ARE being heard...gradually I think it is having some effect.

    when I spoke to assistant manager about the little warning note he was very helpful. I said that they should make the parking bays equal as they get lots of families shopping to. their is about 20 parent spaces and about 70disabled. he did agree. the highlight was when he said said he knew all ppc and how they operate. maybe the word is spreading . he wasn't aware of mse or peeps
    The word about the scammers is spreading like marmite here in the westcountry.
    We workers all love it and the ppc hate it :rotfl:
  • bargepole
    bargepole Posts: 3,236 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    An update on this case:

    The main point which the Judge focused on, and which resulted in NCP losing the case, was the Unfair Terms in Comsumer Contract Regulations, for which NCP's T&C's were ruled to be in breach of, and therefore invalid.

    Also, in August when the case was moved out of Small Claims (which has very limited costs), NCP revealed at that point that their costs to date were £35,000 (not a typo), which doesn't include their barrister's fee for a 3-day hearing, and which they would have sought to recover from JM if they won.

    And, NCP made an out-of-court settlement offer of £2,000 but Mr Barrington-Fuller wouldn't agree to that, so the case went ahead.

    Very well done to JM for sticking to his guns and taking on the bully boys.

    I have been providing assistance, including Lay Representation at Court hearings (current score: won 57, lost 14), to defendants in parking cases for over 5 years. I have an LLB (Hons) degree, and have a Graduate Diploma in Civil Litigation from CILEx. However, any advice given on these forums by me is NOT formal legal advice, and I accept no liability for its accuracy.
  • bargepole wrote: »
    Very well done to JM for sticking to his guns and taking on the bully boys.
    Ditto. It must have been very stressful indeed to be potentially facing an enormous bill for legal fees in the event of a loss. When hearing there's already a potential £35k bill, it's a case of double or quits (lose = their fees + yours to pay, win = nothing to pay).

    Well done in persevering. This needs to be publicised more widely, i.e. local and then national presss.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.7K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.7K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.8K Life & Family
  • 256.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.