UK Parking Control Ltd

llyamah

Hello

My sister received a charge in February 2013. I advised her to follow the advice in this thread and to ignore the charge. I have posted a reply in that thread but also figured it might be a good idea to post a new thread.

She has subsequently received several demands from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, who are quoting the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 as authority for their right to claim the charge amount (currently £160). They are threatening County Court proceedings.

From the other thread, I fully expected this and anticipated that no court proceedings would be brought. However, is the position different now that the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is in force.

I should note that she received the charge because she was not parked appropriately (i.e. I think on a curb) in a free car park.

Thanks for any advice that you can offer.

Mark

prowla

As I understand things...

The car park was free.
A private parking firm cannot issue penalties that are based on the premise that the user has agreed to their T&Cs.
So the amount owed is zero

Stroma

Pofa 2012 is irrelevant to your sister now, this is only for keeper liability. They are writing to the keeper I gather so it doesn't make an ounce of difference. As for DR+ quoting that its purely to make it look legitimate, it means nothing to them either as that would have been decided before they got involved.

She will get Zenith Collections contacting her next, they are DR+ pretending to be someone else, look at the bottom right hand corner of their letter and you with see them saying Zenith are trading name of DR+ , pay close attention to the signatures and James becomes Claire, with such gender issues they should be ignored.

llyamah

Thanks.

I don't know whether this makes any difference, but, I have just spoken with my sister and the reason for the penalty is that she was parked in a gym car park when visiting the cinema (they share a car park). Coincidentally, she is a member of the gym in question but was obviously not signed in at the time of the offence. In any event, both car parks are free.

Just for peace of mind - are they ever likely to take County Court Proceedings as threatened? I am not too worried, as I expected this, but discovering that there was a more recent law did throw me a little!

Stroma

They have never issued a small claim that I'm aware of, ever ! But please don't call it a 'penalty' or an 'offence' committed, this invoice is neither of these, it's just a begging letter asking for money. Just ignore them

llyamah

Thank you - you're right. I didn't know the terminology for this non-event!

Thanks for all of your advice. We will continue to ignore these letters.

fisherjim

llyamah wrote: »

Thank you - you're right. I didn't know the terminology for this non-event!

Thanks for all of your advice. We will continue to ignore these letters.

You are likely to get three threatening letters from DR+ then two from Zenith then it will end.
Both are lying scumbags, as are UKPC, who don't even comply with their own rules.
I caught one of their employees with his van parked in a disabled place two weeks ago (there were plenty of normal spaces).
I told him this shows what a bunch of scam artists they are parking in a disabled bay.
I was hoping for a good argument, but instead he was so thick he thought I was telling him someone had parked in a disabled bay round the corner and shot off shouting "thank you thank you!"
No doubt he thought he would be earning a bit more bonus!:rotfl:

Please keep up the ignore tactic and cost these nasty scamming morons some more money!

llyamah

Will do, thank you! Unfortunately one of my friends received a 'fine' from them the other day. He paid it immediately. I can't believe people pay these things without doing a bit of searching to see whether they can get away with it.

Coupon-mad

llyamah wrote: »

Will do, thank you! Unfortunately one of my friends received a 'fine' from them the other day. He paid it immediately. I can't believe people pay these things without doing a bit of searching to see whether they can get away with it.

It's not 'getting away with it' though. The PPC has got away with it, with your daft friend!

llyamah

True, I know what you mean.

Coupon Mad...

I read one of your detailed posts a few threads down and see that you spoke at length about appealing to POPLA. Is this something that we should have explored? Presumably this has gone too far now and we should just continue to ignore.

Stroma

llyamah wrote: »

True, I know what you mean.

Coupon Mad...

I read one of your detailed posts a few threads down and see that you spoke at length about appealing to POPLA. Is this something that we should have explored? Presumably this has gone too far now and we should just continue to ignore.

It may have been an option, but we don't know the situation of the fake ticket.