APCOA Grrrrrrr.

mboro

I think I need advice regarding a parking ticket I recieved today...of all days!!!!!

I am a member of the NHS (booooo) I was attending a training course and due to the normal lack of staff parking spaces I had to park in the visitors carpark.......and low and behold their is a yellow parking charge notice when I returned to the car.


The ticket is for 08-Parked in an area where parking is restricted to other specified catogories of user or vehicle, with a £60 FINE.

Do I have to pay this or is there a lesser fine to be had as this was 1st offence.

What can I do to get out of paying this or shall I just cough up!!
Please help.

SodG24

mboro wrote: »

I think I need advice regarding a parking ticket I recieved today...of all days!!!!!

I am a member of the NHS (booooo) I was attending a training course and due to the normal lack of staff parking spaces I had to park in the visitors carpark.......and low and behold their is a yellow parking charge notice when I returned to the car.


The ticket is for 08-Parked in an area where parking is restricted to other specified catogories of user or vehicle, with a £60 FINE.

Do I have to pay this or is there a lesser fine to be had as this was 1st offence.

What can I do to get out of paying this or shall I just cough up!!
Please help.

Firstly it's not a FINE - it's a speculative invoice that is unenforceable. You've committed no offence.

You should ignore them and eventually they will go away. They will threaten that the costs will go up, that you may go to court, that you may get a CCJ, that they may kill your cat, that they may kidnap and rape your partner, that the earth will be blasted by alien ships and that you will get to sleep with anyone you wish to if you don't pay. OK, I made the last one up !

Ignore them and their totally unenforceable invoices.

giraffe69

As has been said 45792 times before you have not got a fine. A fine can only be issued by bodies such as the police, council or railways. APCOA are a private company with no authority to fine anyone.
They have given you an invitation to pay them £60. Presumably you don't want to.

You have no reason to pay and no reason to reply. Read the stickies on this forum to give you added courage. Nothing will happen except for a series of letters which you can ignore.

To give you the quietest life possible do not reply to any of them. They will take a while to give up.

mboro

Thanks you so much for the advice, I will sit and hang tight and wait for the mail and then burn all their letters!!!!

Half_way

mboro wrote: »

Thanks you so much for the advice, I will sit and hang tight and wait for the mail and then burn all their letters!!!!

You should keep the letters, if you have a scanner scan them, edit out the personal details and upload them for others to see.
then keep them filed in a drawer.
whilst the letters may be un enforcable, you should keep hold of them.

If you want to appeal, or to put them through popla, which will cost the parking cmpany money - but not you, and which is binding on the pakring company, but not you, take a look at the popla thread
on here on how to appeal.

Coupon-mad

mboro wrote: »

I think I need advice regarding a parking ticket I recieved today...of all days!!!!!

I am a member of the NHS (booooo) I was attending a training course and due to the normal lack of staff parking spaces I had to park in the visitors carpark.......and low and behold their is a yellow parking charge notice when I returned to the car.


The ticket is for 08-Parked in an area where parking is restricted to other specified catogories of user or vehicle, with a £60 FINE.

Do I have to pay this or is there a lesser fine to be had as this was 1st offence.

What can I do to get out of paying this or shall I just cough up!!
Please help.

Wow you almost fell for this well-known scam didn't you?! :eek:

This is NOT a fine!!!!!! You only think it is because it impersonates a parking ticket! You posted this on a parking forum where practically every thread tells you about this 'fake PCN' scam played out by APCOA and hundreds of other private parking companies. Glad to see you have taken on board this advice now but you have some reading to do otherwise you will not be ready for the letters they will send - and I think you'll panic if you thought this fake PCN piece of rubbish was a real fine!

Here is our 'POPLA' appeal information thread if you fancy doing an appeal - but make the right sort of appeal. Read up about it first so you can make an informed decision and realise that even if you lose the appeal (the POPLA stage has to be funded by APCOA!) it doesn't matter:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4263959

Here's a successful POPLA appeal - it's all a bit new but Shona at POPLA seems to like the 'the PPC does not own a proprietary interest in the land' argument as we've seen at least two like this one. As you will see there's no 'sorry, please let me pay less' excuses or mitigation in there!!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4447137

But, bottom line is you can also ignore it of course, and just have fun playing snap with all the threatogram letters that APCOA will send to the registered keeper (as long as this is your car).

Like all the other posters on this board, you have a fake PCN, a misleading invoice.

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.

This is not a penalty at all. It's rubbish, there are no bailiffs letters, just debt collector standard template threatograms (all hot air, we can tell you this for certain).

Tick off the threatening letters as you get them, here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion on a legal Q&A website here.

The letters are actually quite funny when they arrive at the address of someone who knows it's all hogwash and not a real parking ticket at all.

My 18 year old niece has EIGHT fake PCNs so far - and laughs & texts me every time she gets one. She is just a new driver, a teenager, and she knows this is all a con like a series of phishing emails.

I would happily collect more fake PCNs than the 2 that I already have. Plus I have a nice collection of amusing/alarmist debt collector letters which I carry in my handbag to show friends & colleagues if the subject crops up! :rotfl:

mboro

Ohhh you peeps are the best. Ok, so I don't do anything, just wait for the influx of letters in the mail.

How long do they persist for, are we talk months or years???

But if I choose to appeal through POPLA, will they cease and dissist??

Thankyou once more.

Coupon-mad

mboro wrote: »

Ohhh you peeps are the best. Ok, so I don't do anything, just wait for the influx of letters in the mail.

How long do they persist for, are we talk months or years???

But if I choose to appeal through POPLA, will they cease and dissist??

Thankyou once more.

Sorry never saw your reply till now.

We are talking months to get through those letters in the letter chains link I gave you.

If you win at POPLA they have to desist. If you don't 'win' at POPLA it doesn't matter as it costs the PPC money and is only binding on them, not you!