UK Parking Control - their usual tricks! Help

ssfox

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum, so apologies if i'm covering things already discussed, but am a bit nervous. I am yet another victim of the scammers that are Uk Parking Control Ltd and would be grateful for some advice please. I parked in a retail park near my home for approximately 20 minutes and left a valid ticket within the car. However, when I closed the car door, the ticket must have blown onto the seat (albeit it was actually still visible), yet I had a ticket for £90 on my windscreen. I wrote to UK Parking Control (having read a little of this forum, I know this was now probably unwise) and included a photocopy of my ticket for evidence and explained the situation. They wrote back and said they would accept a payment of £20 to resolve the issue. I didn't pay this, as didn't feel i'd done anything wrong (particularly so given I have a valid ticket!). Anyway, the usual letters have been coming threatening legal action etc (which had jumped to £150 owed and are now £120, so no consistency).
Do I need to do anything, or can I still just ignore them now? I really don't want to have to go to court over this, as I have a perfect credit rating and don't want these horrible people spoiling that.
Please help.
Thanks,
ssfox.

Coupon-mad

Did they ever offer you a POPLA code? If so then you missed the chance to get it cancelled. If not then they should have given you a code if this was and incident in England/Wales since Oct 2012.

I would respond and say this, if they never offered a POPLA code:




'Dear UKPC,
Re: fake PCN number xxxxxxx TAKE FORMAL NOTICE

Your letters are now considered harassment and this is a formal instruction to cease and desist with all contact to me about this matter, except for one response by return of post, to confirm you have cancelled the 'ticket'.

I was outraged that you had the audacity to try to charge me £20 - let alone the £120/£150 fluctuating demands that have followed - despite the fact that you had apparently accepted my previous appeal. You even acknowledged my evidence that I had paid and displayed a ticket which was visible in the car. Clearly no loss was suffered by the landowner/occupier and certainly not by UKPC. It is not for me to cover your business running costs due to your own negligence in failing to invest in adhesive pay & display tickets.

You issued no POPLA code within 35 days of my appeal, so the matter was deemed closed. Your £20 demand isn't even listed as an option in the BPA Code of Practice as an allowable response to a challenge. You should have cancelled the charge or issued a POPLA code; there is no middle ground and there is no lawful excuse to still be bombarding me with your letters.

I reserve the right to forward your correspondence with a specific complaint about your actions to the AOS Operator Compliance Team at the BPA. I will also make an official complaint to the DVLA, Trading Standards and any other agencies I consider relevant. I also intend to invoke a complaint and proceed with a small claim for damages under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the liability for which rests jointly and severally with UKPC and your client, the landowner of the Retail Park.

I am aware from my research about UKPC that various local Trading Standards Departments already have files on your business practices and that this led to proceedings in Hull Crown Court in 2011. If forced to involve your landowner client I will of course make them aware of this information, which is already in the public domain and would surely be of significant interest to anyone using UKPC as an agent.

I request that you write to me once more, by 10th July at the latest, to confirm that all charges are cancelled, otherwise I will have no option but to escalate this complaint including making a small claim against you and your client.

yours


PRINT NAME (DO NOT USE REAL SIGNATURE FOR THIS POND LIFE)




P.S. Complaining to the BPA explained here:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=8

and complaining to the DVLA is as easy as an email to [EMAIL="FOI@dvla.gsi.gov.uk"]FOI@dvla.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

HTH

ssfox

I do not believe that they did offer me a POPLA code (although will check the correspondence again when I get home from work). Yes, this did take place in England in 2013, in answer to your question.
Thank you for the advice. So, just to clarify, you definitely don't think I am legally liable for this ticket? I've tried to do everything by the book, as, like I say, I have the original ticket, but really wish they would leave me alone now

Coupon-mad

ssfox wrote: »

I do not believe that they did offer me a POPLA code (although will check the correspondence again when I get home from work). Yes, this did take place in England in 2013, in answer to your question.
Thank you for the advice. So, just to clarify, you definitely don't think I am legally liable for this ticket? I've tried to do everything by the book, as, like I say, I have the original ticket, but really wish they would leave me alone now

No you are not legally liable for the fake PCN, in my (non-lawyer but experienced poster) opinion, and in any case UKPC don't do Court so it's all about junk mail. But I just felt it was time to stamp on it. No POPLA code given is fatal to their case and I have seen UKPC do the same thing on a thread last week. They tried to make a disabled person pay them £15 to cover their costs because the person's Blue Badge fell down (and like yours there was no POPLA code offered). I wrote that poster a similar complaint to send but in their case they had not yet got further junk mail upping it back to a high amount.

And yet there is NO 'middle ground' like this available for UKPC to use; their choices under the BPA Code of Practice they are signed up for, were to accept your appeal or to reject it and give you POPLA details and a Code. That was it and they have failed so send that complaint; jeez if it was that simple to circumvent POPLA then all PPCs would just pretend to 'accept' an appeal, reduce the charge to £20 then rack it back up again later having side-stepped POPLA. Can't be done!

PPCs don't like their landowner clients being brought into these issues.