Parking fine from CP plus - overstay at motorway car park £90, £50 if paid in 14 day

Coupon-mad

Driver_29 wrote: »

Ive had a good read up on this company, and others of its ilk, and the worry/panick that i had previously is slowly turning to anger.

How on earth can the data protection act allow this to happen DVLA passing details on?

any where i can complain?


Secondly these cameras that photographed my car, have missed my going out I entered the service area on the way to where i was going, and then returned for a very short time on my return home, as something had come lose in my car.

Continuing onwards, how does this tally up with government advice to take a break, if you doze off at the services due to fatigue, and you happen to (need to ) sleep for a little longer than expected then you will end up with a fine.

As the cameras appeared to take a picture of my first entry, and last exit, and then charge me/fine me as a result, how many others have paid up without question, out of fear - the only thing that stopped myself from paying the reduced fee immediatly ( as i wanted to get it out of the way ) was that it had gone past 5pm - and CP plus's contact us number ( 0208 731 3100 ) under contact us had closed ( open 9-5) and the website wouldnt let me pay online.
How are CP plus allowed to operate in this manner, I very nearly paid what about all the other people who pay up? if this is what it appears to be then why doesnt moto kick them off their land, and return any moneys paid to where they belong?

:mad:


My probable cause of action will be to ignore the stuff from CP plus, and complain like hell to the service area, any pointers on how i can make it hard for moto/CP plus? I believe there's some new appeal process, the letter doesn't mention much about it, other than there's a provision for an independent appeals process it doesnt say what it is, or give any pointers.

edit this is probably explained in the link /posts above :mad:

By George, I think he's got it! :T

All your questions have already been asked and answered loads of times.

Not only on here but in the National press, on Watchdog, you name it they have discussed the shocking fact that the DVLA sell our data to random private companies just because they buy themselves a place on a pseudo-legit 'approved operators scheme' run by the BPA (British Parking Association). And you may ask, are the BPA some sort of regulator then? Are they heck! The BPA is run...by the PPCs themselves, to ensure the profits and interests of their own members are raised at every opportunity. It's like having a fox left in charge of a hen-coop and that's why clamping has just been banned by the Government (because the BPA could not and would not control the criminal behaviour that was rife among clampers). Oh, and those ex-clampers are now all springing up as 'ticketers'.

As for the appeal idea - yes, do it as it costs the PPCs money and if this is the old 'two separate visits' scam (well known) then CP Plus will not want this put in front of POPLA at their expense. The POPLA decision is only binding on the PPC and not on you and is free for you too!

I think I did already post that POPLA is discussed and info linked on the 2nd from top thread and the letter chains are shown in the 5th from top thread on this sub-forum:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

The more complaints the merrier, we encourage complaints to Supermarkets and Service Stations, Hospitals and landowners, anyone daft enough to allow a PPC scammer to rip off their paying customers/workers/residents. These 'proper businesses' don't pay the PPCs by the way, they fall for the fact it is sold to them by some suit doing a pitch that says 'we will solve your parking problems and police your disabled bays for free, it will be marvellous, you won't have to worry about that side of your premises' blah blah...

...in truth it's simply a protection racket dressed up to impersonate parking tickets. PPCs sole income, in most cases is from idiots who pay the fake PCNs and indeed some give a percentage of the 'bounty' to the landowner. So you can see that the PPCs' incentive is to scam people, they are not paid to do this service so they have to get victims. It's nothing at all to do with parking management and there's obviously zero customer service ethic.

Sirdan

maninthestreet wrote: »

Anyone still clamping cars on private land is committing a criminal offence.

For clarity anyone clamping cars "without lawful authority" is committing an offence , the Act does not mention "private land".

Buzby

Anyone can get your RK details from the DVLA by paying the relevant fee - there's no magic to it. The fact the data is released may fool you into believing they have also a right to 'fine' you.

They don't - but if you wish to be a professional victim, get your chequebook out. Otherwise, see the scam for what it is and ignore it.

timbo58

If I was a PPC employee reading this - the only thing I'd have benefitted from was now knowing 'clearly we should have an easier to pay system/telephone answered longer in the day'.

That way I could be assured we'd earn more money from those who were scared enough to pay up immediately and then check later and safe in the knowledge (as other have said repeatedly) that any 'appeal' was going to be turned down anyway.

The last thing I'd want is for the victim to actually take proper advice and be told to ignore me!

:-)

It does however bring up the tongue in cheek remark mentioned by another poster as being 'quite sensible' in comparison: i.e. why not offer yourself as a willing recipient for all such 'speculative invoices' for a fee?
Why hasn't someone already done this I wonder?

I suppose the only 'risk' is that the PPCs would get together eventually and actually bother to take you to court after so many hundred 'IOUs' were plasted on various cars and attributed to you?
Is it 'intention to deceive' as the PCN isn't enforceable or legally binding in any case?

Driver_29

Ive been having a look through various websites for advice, as well as this one, and im surprised and shocked by the sheer level of this thing.

Most of the car park authority/company websites have a short section on legal issues one of these company's CPS seems to have a huge section on the legal issues, first i thought they were linked to CP plus, but fortunately they appear to be a different parking authority.


POPLA, ive read up on this, but how can i appeal via popla, the CP plus parking fine/charge letter says nothing about popla, only to appeal via their own process sending letters off to a PO box number in Borhamwood Hertfordshire, and i dotn want to waste the cost of a stamp.

Theres also the option to contact us via e-mail, and phone.

If i do appeal, then as fare as i have discovered:

POPLA / protection of freedoms act means that i cant hide behind the i was not the driver, but at the same time im under no obligation to disclose who the driver was ( in theory ) would this be correct?


I would also like to mention that i believe the times on the cameras my be wrong, and i may request some calibration certificates and question their accuracy.


if i get a rejection then i will ignore, if so then.....



Would CP plus be able to bar me/my car from all car parks at motorway services?

I've read something about NCP towing someone's car over unpaid parking fines/charges, even though this was proved wrong at court, i wouldnt want the same hassle should the same/similar happen?


As for the sticky letters, there is only one for CP plus post October the 1st, what will come next?

If i do contact them/appeal i will attempt this via e-mail, if i phone them it will be on an old mobile phone with an old sim card.

trisontana

You are taking this much too seriously. They won't be able to "bar" you from the service areas. They don't own them. Just follow the advice on here about ignoring them and don't worry yourself over such things as calibration certificates. It's not worth the hassle.

HardWorker2010_2

Driver_29,

You're still taking this to seriously.

You've not committed a crime or broken any laws.

Your best course of action is to ignore them.

Some people on this forum would engage with CP Plus purely to waste some of CP Plus's money via the POPLA route.(Appeal to CP Plus, CP Plus reject it, Appeal to POPLA and then ignore). I would suggest this option isn't for you as you seem overly worried by this.

If you ignore them their computer will spit out the standard series of letters. They may continue to the last one from Zenith Collections or give up before then if they think you know it's a scam. You can come back here for reasurance as each letter arrives.

maninthestreet

Driver_29 wrote: »

Ive been having a look through various websites for advice, as well as this one, and im surprised and shocked by the sheer level of this thing.

Most of the car park authority/company websites have a short section on legal issues one of these company's CPS seems to have a huge section on the legal issues, first i thought they were linked to CP plus, but fortunately they appear to be a different parking authority.


POPLA, ive read up on this, but how can i appeal via popla, the CP plus parking fine/charge letter says nothing about popla, only to appeal via their own process sending letters off to a PO box number in Borhamwood Hertfordshire, and i dotn want to waste the cost of a stamp.

Theres also the option to contact us via e-mail, and phone.

If i do appeal, then as fare as i have discovered:

POPLA / protection of freedoms act means that i cant hide behind the i was not the driver, but at the same time im under no obligation to disclose who the driver was ( in theory ) would this be correct?


I would also like to mention that i believe the times on the cameras my be wrong, and i may request some calibration certificates and question their accuracy.


if i get a rejection then i will ignore, if so then.....



Would CP plus be able to bar me/my car from all car parks at motorway services?

I've read something about NCP towing someone's car over unpaid parking fines/charges, even though this was proved wrong at court, i wouldnt want the same hassle should the same/similar happen?


As for the sticky letters, there is only one for CP plus post October the 1st, what will come next?

If i do contact them/appeal i will attempt this via e-mail, if i phone them it will be on an old mobile phone with an old sim card.

An easier course of action would be just to ignore any of their correspondence and don't pay them a penny.

Driver_29

Ignoring it would be an easy option, but i would also like to give them a kick up the backside, and make it known that ( now i know what i know) that there antics in sending out these things are appalling, likewise with moto allowing this to happen under their noses.


There is an elderly lady across the road from me, she still drives, but only when she has to, a few months ago she was distraught when she received one of these tickets, and paid up as she didn't want the hassle, now she worries about visiting car parks and making sure her blue badge is blu-tacked down correctly to avoid getting fined ( this was a private car park )


If I ignore it I assume/hope they would go away after a while, however how many more vulnerable people will pay up without question, and then worry for now and evermore?


I feel that the sooner the private parking enforcement/fines industry is stamped out the better, and in its place we should have a real local authority/highways agency controlled enforcement agency that is there to police parking fairly: not for profit, and with full public accountability for their actions, methods, techniques and fines/charges.

HardWorker2010_2

Driver_29 wrote: »

Ignoring it would be an easy option, but i would also like to give them a kick up the backside, and make it known that ( now i know what i know) that there antics in sending out these things are appalling, likewise with moto allowing this to happen under their noses.

Commendable but you would be wasting your time. The private parking 'industry' already knows it is operating a scam. Moto know this as well - they have even let CP Plus use their VAT number on their letters !!!!

I feel sorry for the old lady you mentioned. Unfortunately she is the ideal victim for this scam.