Recived letter from debt colection agency

m.krask

I don't know what to do. we received letter from debt collection agency for the ticket received from PCM. I'm in shock i was always told to ignore those tickets. What to do now...

What have happened person by mistake displayed clock instead of blue badge in disabled parking space.

Received ticket but everywhere i was told that i should ignore any ticket.

Received 2 more letters and now this...

What to do...

They took owner details from DVLA but they don't know who was driving?


What now?

Umkomaas

Read here, especially the Section relating to Debt Collectors.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

When did the parking event take place?

Where did you get the advice to ignore as in

?......... but everywhere i was told that i should ignore any ticket.

m.krask

I have received this advice on this forum that even after the change in law i should still ignore it. So newlyn is not debt collection... hmm so why my charge risen over 50 pounds??

Coupon-mad

m.krask wrote: »

I have received this advice on this forum that even after the change in law i should still ignore it. So newlyn is not debt collection... hmm so why my charge risen over 50 pounds??

Only if you are in Scotland and NI. Otherwise we haven't advised that for the best part of a year! The law changed 18 months ago.

Not sure what you mean by 'Newlyn is not debt collection'. They are = toothless pen-pushers. They are not bailiffs in this instance though.

Please just search the forum for the keyword Newlyn as their letters are discussed every day and there's not much to add because your options are in post #4 of the linked FAQs thread already. I would choose the 'respond robustly and complain to the Retail Centre Manager' option shown there, because PCM do try court in some cases so to pre-empt this, you need to respond and be forthright about your legal rights under the Equality Act 2010.

You may like to search for posts about PCM by the poster called trubster, who is good at getting Centre managers to drop these (his experience is with Meadowhall but his letter would work for anywhere).

m.krask

Thank you.... The post that i mentioned was posted on this forum sometime ago and on every instance it said ignore it. But never mind. Do you think i could change the letter:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63814146#Comment_63814146
a little bit to fit my situation the only difference is the company PCM. and my wife displayed clock by accident instead the BB. And yes this is motability car. With tax exempt...

Coupon-mad

Oh yes I had forgotten about that one! You could indeed send that and also rattle the cage of the Retail Centre Manager by copying them in (Google the name of the retail park to find a contact). Thing is you are unlikely to get a POPLA code at this late stage but it is perfectly reasonable to try - and more than reasonable to have a go at PCM! Also if this did progress to a court hearing then you have done some reasonable groundwork to state your case - but you'd need more forum help re an actual legal defence as the Equality Act is perfectly sound reasoning but perhaps not something every county court Judge would fully 'get'.

m.krask

Would there be a possibility that someone could help me with editing this letter?

Coupon-mad

Post it up edited as best you can (e.g. change all the names to PCM and change the disability details from amputees if not right) then post your draft here first. Doesn't matter if PCM see it - they are a bunch of ex-clampers so unlikely to have a surfeit of brain-cells and they'll see your letter soon enough!

m.krask

Well I done some work but I'm struggling because my wife's disability is not visible at all I hope You guys can help


Dear PCM

Re ticket number XXXXXXXXX

I am the registered keeper of vehicle XXXXXX and am hereby exercising my right under section 22.14 of the BPA Code of Practice to appeal to yourselves and to POPLA if you should reject this challenge. The driver will not be identified so don't waste my time by sending a holding letter asking for the driver, or you will be reported to Steve Clark at the BPA immediately.


EQUALITY ACT 2010 AND BREACH OF UTCCR 1999
For the avoidance of doubt, the passengers both have severe disabilities and I attach a copy of one of the Blue Badges for you to swiftly cancel this harassment.

As you are aware, the Blue Badge scheme does not even lawfully apply in private car parks. Companies such as PCM may well mention the Badge on your signs, ostensibly to pay lip-service to disability law and to make it easy for you to issue tickets for any transgression you might invent, but you cannot rely on it in isolation as the only indicator of disability need. And you are certainly wholly unjustified to harass a disabled group of visitors for the spurious reason that you seem to think that, suddenly, a disability disappears if a Blue Badge is not the renewed version (a copy of which is attached, because as keeper I am keen to resolve the issue have better things to do than enter into protracted correspondence with a firm like PCM).

Your terms on your signs are expressly unenforceable and if you disagree then I will show POPLA that is the case, along with exposing the flaws in your Notice to Keeper, the non-compliance of your signage at the disabled bays at this site and the fact you have clearly made no loss.

Where there is a current disabled tax disc then it is an indicator that the car is used by someone whose restricted mobility qualifies for higher rate disability benefit. Plus remember that not all health issues are so visible to others. But I would like to point out one thing. Your operative was crafty enough to take pictures in such a way to avoid pictures of Tax Disc where it states DISABLED. Your operative needs re-training in the Equality Act 2010.

Here is the law and how your signage terms are affected by it:

EQUALITY ACT 2010
142 Unenforceable terms
(1) A term of a contract is unenforceable against a person in so far as it constitutes, promotes or provides for treatment of that or another person that is of a description prohibited by this Act.

144 Contracting out
(1) A term of a contract is unenforceable by a person in whose favour it would operate in so far as it purports to exclude or limit a provision of or made under this Act.

This is not a case of mitigating circumstances, this is primary disability law which takes precedence and which grants unequivocal rights which cannot be removed, nor restricted to certain groups, nor unilaterally changed or charged for on a whim, for your profit.

Driver is severely disabled. Both have 'Protected Characteristics' under the Act (whether they have ingrowing toenails or not, PCM). They have the legal right to use any 'reasonable adjustment' provided by any landholder/client/operator when visiting a customer-facing environment, including car parks.

Any term that PCM may have on your signs to the effect 'Blue Badges only' is wholly unreasonable and therefore null and void, if the effect is to deny a disabled person their statutory right to use a reasonable adjustment without penalty.

EQUALITY ACT 2010
29 Provision of services
(1) A person (a “service-provider”) concerned with the provision of a service to the public or a section of the public (for payment or not) must not discriminate against a person requiring the service by not providing the person with the service.
(2) A service-provider (A) must not, in providing the service, discriminate against a person (B)—
(a) as to the terms on which A provides the service to B;
(b) by terminating the provision of the service to B;
(c) by subjecting B to any other detriment.
(3) A service-provider must not, in relation to the provision of the service, harass—
(a) a person requiring the service, or
(b) a person to whom the service-provider provides the service.
(4) A service-provider must not victimise a person requiring the service by not providing the person with the service.
(5) A service-provider (A) must not, in providing the service, victimise a person (B)—
(a) as to the terms on which A provides the service to B;
(b) by terminating the provision of the service to B;
(c) by subjecting B to any other detriment.

As a company, PCM has specifically breached your legal duties (and the on-site operative has breached his individual duties) under the 'EHRC Equality Act Code of Practice for Service Providers' which has been law since 2011. 'Service Provider' is a term loosely associated with PCM and certainly applies to your landowner/occupier client in this car park, who will be hearing about this matter from me, if you do not cancel this ticket within 10 days.

I know that PCM do not own this car park and you are acting merely as agents for the owner/occupier. If you fund this POPLA appeal you will be required among your evidence, to produce your contract or site agreement with the landowner and I will require PCM to demonstrate how your contract and ownership status differs from that in the cases VCS v Ibbotson, Case No 1SE09849 (16/5/2012), ParkingEye v Sharma, Case No. 3QT62646 (23/10/2013) and ParkingEye v Gardam, Case No: 3QT60598 (14/11/2013).

I will also cite in my POPLA appeal, case UKCPS v Murphy (April 2012 finding that charge was a penalty) and Excel v Greenwood, Case Number 3QT60496 (4/10/2013) which was about a forgotten Blue Badge, where the Judge found that the Excel should have made reasonable adjustments once they knew about the disability.

In your office when you saw the DVLA data and printed out a Notice to Keeper, you certainly already knew about the disability need - take a look at the address you sent the Notice to Keeper to which shows it as a 'Motability vehicle'. And so did your operative on site know about the disability so the breach is complete. Harassment is also a specific breach of the Equality Act as well, so choose your reply carefully as I am keeping all your letters safe in case they are needed in court and at POPLA if you send me a code instead of cancelling. I would of course appeal this if I have to, at POPLA stage but if so, take formal note that I will charge for my time at £18 per hour and I reserve the right to claim against you after the event, since the remedy for Equality Act 2010 breach is monetary damages with far more legal backing than your Notice.


Yours,

REGISTERED KEEPER'S NAME (do not sign with anything more than a squiggle)

Coupon-mad

That will be fine. They won't actually accept it nor send you a POPLA code as you are late in appealing - but you have set the scene and should copy in the Retail Centre Manager. You could also send a pm to trubster to find out how he upped the ante against PCM in a retail park situation with no disabled badge showing...