Appeal to ANPR Ltd from an overstay in Swansea Parc Tawe

Coupon-mad

Never mind - it's only ANPR PC and their pet debt collector pen-pushers! However, this lot need more complaints made about them and you should now complain as you could have done months ago. They have done so much wrong it's hard to spot anything right about it!

swinster

Umkomaas and Coupon-mad

I do apologies for not taking heed of the previous posters instruction and surely I did not means to offend anyone on here by not doing so. Rest assured that I will now take action, albeit belatedly.

Umkomaas

swinster wrote: »

Umkomaas and Coupon-mad

I do apologies for not taking heed of the previous posters instruction and surely I did not means to offend anyone on here by not doing so. Rest assured that I will now take action, albeit belatedly.

No offence taken, swinster. It was just sheer frustration, and that was mainly directed towards the PPCs and DCAs who continue to feed off public ignorance, respect for 'authority' and a willingness to be parted so easily from their hard-earned.

Coupon-mad

swinster wrote: »

Umkomaas and Coupon-mad

I do apologise for not taking heed of the previous posters instruction and surely I did not means to offend anyone on here by not doing so. Rest assured that I will now take action, albeit belatedly.

That's OK, it's just hassle for you now that's all - and we always encourage complaints because the whole industry is rotten (fact, can be backed up with evidence!).

swinster

Hi all,

I have waited until now to post further updates to this thread, but I have just received some feedback from the DVLA.

Firstly, I would like to say a big THANKS to all the people that post here and similar forums. Without you, people like us would not be able to fight our own battles.

Secondly, I am going to update you all as to what when on since May (unfortunately it makes this post rather long). Well, first off I wrote to the DVLA, BPA, and ANPR, generally the letter was similar, but I have posted below the content of my letter to the DVLA - I hope that it will help someone. If possible I will try to link to the Word Document to others can use them template.

Dear Sirs,

I wish to lodge a complaint in the strongest fashion against ANPR Ltd in reference to their malpractice and continued harassment in relation to an alleged parking incident that took place in Parc Tawe North, Swansea on the 21/12/2013. This company has applied to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for information about the registered vehicle owner, and as a result has pursued myself (the registered owner of the vehicle involved in the alleged incident), however, they have continued to misrepresent themselves, breach established Codes of Practice (CoP) as outlined by the British Parking Association (BPA), and as such breached the KADOE contract that exists with the DVLA.

In the first instance, ANPR Ltd issued a Parking Charge Notice on the 17th January 2014 and directed this to me after determining that I was the registered owner of the vehicle via the DVLA. As the registered owner and under the Code of Practice, it is within my rights to appeal this decision which I duly did (within the 28 day time limt specified by ANPR Ltd), stating that I denied liability and that they appear to be circumventing the Protection of Freedoms Act (POFA) 2012 (specifically Schedule 4) to obtain the drivers details. I further invited them to raise a ‘Parking on Private Land Appeals’ (POPLA) code if they wished to take this matter further.

Following this appeal I immediately received what can only be called an incredibly unprofessional one line email that at best was written in poor pigeon English and again blatantly ignored the Codes of Practice by attempting to solicit the driver’s identity, yet raised no requested POPLA code. As I had already outlined my argument I saw no need to respond to this flippant comment and so waited for a professional response to the appeal, which should have been delivered within 35 days. Unfortunately none was forthcoming and the next correspondence I had was from a debt recovery organisation.

You will be aware of the advisory published by the BPA as the DVLA itself has referred to this message previously, as outlined below:

“the following practices may be considered as Code breaches and must not be continued:

• · Asking the motorist to enter into additional correspondence to obtain a POPLA code
• · Failing to include a correct and/or valid POPLA Code within the Rejection correspondence
• · Issuing a POPLA Code with a date identifier which is significantly different from the date of rejection
• · Appearing to indicate that the issue of a POPLA Code is conditional on driver details being supplied”

It is clear that APNR Ltd have no regard for the Codes of Practice as they have:

• · Issued no POPLA code after I (as the registered keeper) had requested one
• · Issued no rejection or acceptance notification with regard to the appeal as lodged
• · They are making statements of misrepresentation regarding liability, adherence to the Codes of Practice, and the original Notice to Keeper is not compliant under POFA to invoke keeper liability
• · They have falsely declared that a POPLA code will only be issued if the registered keeper names the driver, and I as the keeper have no legal obligation to name the driver.

As such, they are also in breach of the KADOE contract that exists with the DVLA.

If you so wish, I can provide documentary evidence of the communication with ANPR Ltd.

I look forward to your response shortly.


Yours Sincerely

The email sent to ANPR PC read:

Dear Sirs,

It would appear that you have not taken heed of my initial notification to you (dated 13th February 2014) and continued to ignore the Code of Practice issued by you member organisation, the British Parking Association, and have now employed a debt collection agency in an attempt to intimidate and harass me into paying your preposterous invoice. Unfortunately, your “Parking Charge Notice” does not fulfil the requirements under POFA 2012 to invoke keeper liability and that under their Code of Practice either a keeper or a driver can appeal.

In addition, I’m sure you will be aware of the advisory published by the BPA, as outlined below:

“the following practices may be considered as Code breaches and must not be continued:

• · Asking the motorist to enter into additional correspondence to obtain a POPLA code
• · Failing to include a correct and/or valid POPLA Code within the Rejection correspondence
• · Issuing a POPLA Code with a date identifier which is significantly different from the date of rejection
• · Appearing to indicate that the issue of a POPLA Code is conditional on driver details being supplied”

It is clear that APNR Ltd have no regard for the Codes of Practice as you have:

• Issued no POPLA code after I (as the registered keeper) had requested one
• Issued no rejection or acceptance notification with regard to the appeal as lodged
• Made statements of misrepresentation regarding liability and adherence to the Codes of Practice, and the original Notice to Keeper is not compliant under POFA to invoke keeper liability
• Falsely declared that a POPLA code will only be issued if the registered keeper names the driver, and I as the keeper have no legal obligation to name the driver.
• And as such, you are also in breach of the KADOE contract that exists with the DVLA.

In light of all of these, I have formally submitted complaints to the Driver Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA), British Parking Association (BPA), Independent Parking Committee Ltd (IPC) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). I will also be make representation to each and every tenant within Parc Tawe North to inform them of you malpractice and pass this on to the proper land owners.

I will not be responding you your debt recovery agency or enter into any further conversation with yourselves.

Regards,

Chris

Of course, I received stock response from the DVLA and BPA (not IPC as ANPR PC are not a member) asking for more info. Below is the response from BPA:

Dear Sir/Madam

Approved Operator Scheme BPA Ref: XXXX

Many thanks for your e-mail received concerning the parking incident you experienced with ANPR Ltd.

The Approved Operator Scheme and its Code of Practice was developed by the BPA to bring a degree of regulation to an industry without primary legislation. Regrettably as we are not a regulatory authority, we are not empowered to become involved in individual disputes between you and the car park operator and have no power to overturn an operator’s decision. Therefore, any action regarding your individual circumstances are out of our control and should be directed directly to the operator. Although we sympathise with your predicament we have no power to get an operator to cancel or refund any parking enforcement charges.

I would be happy to make contact with the operator concerned to seek to determine whether they are non-compliant of our Code, as this operator is a member of the BPA. To do this I would need to be provided with some items of information including the incident number (which should be in the receipt for payment or on the Parking Charge Notice), vehicle registration number, date and location of the parking incident and copies of any correspondence which may have been exchanged.

If a member is found to be non-compliant of the Code, they would be subject to our Sanctions Scheme, where Operators who are non-compliant the Code can expect to receive a number of penalty points depending on the severity of the offence. As with driving offences, once an operator’s ‘licence’ has reached twelve points in any given 12-month period, then they are likely to be faced with suspension or expulsion. The Code of practice can be reviewed on our website; www.britishparking.co.uk.

However there is a process for you to follow if you feel that the ticket has been wrongly issued and is seeking to get it cancelled. This would see you initially appeal to the parking operator setting out your reasons for challenging the issue of the ticket. If the operator rejects this challenge then they are required to give you, the motorist details of POPLA – the independent appeals service for parking incidents on private land. This is a free service to the motorist and the decisions of the adjudicator are binding on the operator.

Many thanks for bringing this matter to my attention and I look forward to receiving the additional information requested at your convenience.

Yours sincerely


AOS Investigations Team

I duly responded with the relevant details and timeline:

Dear Sirs,

Many thanks for your recent response. However, I should point out that I did not specifically ask if you were able to “overturn the operator’s decision” or “cancel or refund” the invoice raised to me, but rather to look into my complaint against ANPR PC Ltd as a member of your organisation, its malpractice and multiple breaches of you own code of practice. I realise that your response is probably only a template and so not specifically tuned to my individual request, but I do ask that you re-read my initial letter to fully understand the points raised and help me to ensure that companies such as this do not continue to operate in this fashion. With regard to your point raised about my need to follow a “process” should I feel that the notice has been “wrongly issued and am seeking to get it cancelled”, I have indeed approached ANPR PC Ltd. and (as you will see) requested a further appeal via POPLA should the initial appeal not be successful, however (as has been outline in my letter), ANPR have failed to comply with the very process you refer to.

I have include the information you have requested below:

Incident Number: XXXX-XXXX
Date of Issue of Incident: 17/01/2014
Registration: XXXXXXX
Date of Alleged incident: 21/12/2013
Location of Alleged Incident: Parc Tawe North

I have included as attachments scanned copies of the initial Incident Notification as sent by ANPR PC Ltd. and one of the subsequent harassing debt recovery letters (see second email) issue by DRP on behalf of ANPR PC Ltd (I have mislaid the initial letter from DRP). Below, I have included my initial response to ANPR PC Ltd. directed to its “Appeals” department and their subsequent response in the form of a timeline. As outlined in my initial letter, I had no follow up response by ANPR PC Ltd., no indication of the result of the supposed “appeal”, and no POPLA code.

At the same time as raising a complaint to you and the DVLA, I issued a follow up email to ANPR PC Ltd, to which I have had no response other than the automated reply.

Time Line

1. Initial Incident Notification Letter received – January 2014. Please see zipped attachment.

2. My response to ANPR PC Ltd.’s. initial Incident Notification sent on 13/02/2014:

Dear ANPR,

I am the registered keeper of the vehicle registration number XXXXX and confirm receipt of your parking charge notice XXXX-XXXX dated 17/01/2014 (for an alleged incident on the 21/12/2013) and deny any liability to pay this parking charge.

As you appear to be circumventing the requirements of POFA 2012, the registered keeper is not responsible for this charge, but the driver! I therefore suggest you take this matter up with that person. Please note I have no legal obligation to name the driver.

The amount claimed constitutes an unlawful penalty, as it is not a genuine pre-estimate of any loss you pretend you have and I further contend that you have no legal authority to pursue any charge through the courts as you are acting as an agent for the landowner and do not have any property interest at this location.

Now as you are pursuing the wrong person, you are being put on notice that complaints are being prepared to submit to the BPA and DVLA and I suggest that you cancel this parking charge immediately to save further embarrassment.

However should you wish to pursue this matter further, then you are more than welcome to supply a POPLA code which will result in further appeal points raised.

You should be aware that if you either continue to pursue myself as keeper (with or without supplying a POPLA code), then I reserve the right to raise a claim for my costs and time against you at a court rate of £18 per hour. My costs are not exhaustive and will include stationery, stamps, travel expenses and any legal costs etc., and by and by continuing to pursue me you agree to pay these should I prevail.

In view of the above, I look forward to receiving your written confirmation by return that this parking charge has been cancelled.

Kind regards,

Chris


3. The following is an automated response from ANPR Ltd. received on 13/02/2014

Your message has been logged as an appeal.
We will respond to your appeal in writing. This process takes between 3 and 7 working days.
In the meantime, we will hold any action on your notice until we have replied to your representation
Please Note: Our appeals procedure results in either an acceptance or rejection notice being sent to you
Should your appeal be rejected, we will not accept any further appeal from you unless it is accompanied by evidence of the paid use of services at the site in question on the date and time of the occurrence, ie. a receipt, invoice, etc
Appeals Department

ANPR PC Ltd


4. This was followed by an incredibly poor and unprofessional human response from ANPR PC Ltd received on 13/02/2014 (and yes, the English that is shown is indeed the English and spelling that was used!):

We recommend that you supply the drives details or we may continue to peruse you as it states in the new code of practise 2013

Many Thanks

ANPR Parking Control / P.A.C.E.
“The Most Advanced Number Plate Recognition In The World”
In association with www.StarkTechnologies.co.uk

www.anprparkingcontrol.co.uk

[EMAIL="info@anprparkingcontrol.co.uk"]info@anprparkingcontrol.co.uk[/EMAIL]

ANPR PC Ltd
Registered Office address:
145 - 157 St John St
EC1V 4PY, London, UK
Company Number: 7279811

ANPR PC LTD is registered with the Information Commissioner in compliance with Data Protection Act 1998. Data Protection Registration Number Z2407217.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER: This message is sent in confidence for the addressee only. It may contain confidential or sensitive information. The contents are not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee. Unauthorised recipients are requested to preserve this confidentiality and to advise us of any errors in transmission. If you have received this mail in error or have any concerns about the content, please inform our team immediately at [EMAIL="info@anprparkingcontrol.co.uk"]info@anprparkingcontrol.co.uk[/EMAIL] Thank You


I declined to respond to this as I had already outlined my points and suggested several further courses of action in my initial response, so waited for the result of the supposed appeals process, however, I received no further communication from ANPR PC Ltd either via email or post.


5. The next correspondence I received with regard to this matter was what I would constitute as the harassing letters from the debt recovery agency DRP acting on behalf of ANPR PC Ltd. I have received two letters from DRP but have only included the last as I have misplaced the first, yet as far as I can remember, they both say similar things. Please see the attachments in the second email.


6. After these letters and some further thought, I decided that ANPR PC Ltd. are acting way beyond their bounds and whilst I had hoped that they would have seen sense and that I would not need to take further action, unfortunately this was not the case. As such, I have been forced to follow through on my initial statement a raise a complaint against the actions of the operator. The following is the last email I have sent to ANPR PC Ltd. on the 04/06/2014

Dear Sirs,

It would appear that you have not taken heed of my initial notification to you (dated 13th February 2014) and continued to ignore the Code of Practice issued by you member organisation, the British Parking Association, and have now employed a debt collection agency in an attempt to intimidate and harass me into paying your preposterous invoice. Unfortunately, your “Parking Charge Notice” does not fulfil the requirements under POFA 2012 to invoke keeper liability and that under their Code of Practice either a keeper or a driver can appeal.

In addition, I’m sure you will be aware of the advisory published by the BPA, as outlined below:

“the following practices may be considered as Code breaches and must not be continued:

• · Asking the motorist to enter into additional correspondence to obtain a POPLA code
• · Failing to include a correct and/or valid POPLA Code within the Rejection correspondence
• · Issuing a POPLA Code with a date identifier which is significantly different from the date of rejection
• · Appearing to indicate that the issue of a POPLA Code is conditional on driver details being supplied”

It is clear that APNR Ltd have no regard for the Codes of Practice as you have:

• · Issued no POPLA code after I (as the registered keeper) had requested one
• · Issued no rejection or acceptance notification with regard to the appeal as lodged
• · Made statements of misrepresentation regarding liability and adherence to the Codes of Practice, and the original Notice to Keeper is not compliant under POFA to invoke keeper liability
• · Falsely declared that a POPLA code will only be issued if the registered keeper names the driver, and I as the keeper have no legal obligation to name the driver.
• · And as such, you are also in breach of the KADOE contract that exists with the DVLA.

In light of all of these, I have formally submitted complaints to the Driver Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA), British Parking Association (BPA), Independent Parking Committee Ltd (IPC) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). I will also be make representation to each and every tenant within Parc Tawe North to inform them of you malpractice and pass this on to the proper land owners.

I will not be responding you your debt recovery agency or enter into any further conversation with yourselves.

Regards,

Chris


Again, I have not received any further correspondence from ANPR PC Ltd.

I hope that this is sufficient information for you to carry out your investigation and issue sanctions against this operator.

Regards,

Chris

swinster

This was all back in June, and both the DVLA and BPA said that they would investigate and be back in touch shortly (10 days for the DVLA). Well, I finally received and email last week from the DVLA that although can be marked down as a small victory, seems a little hollow:

Dear Mr X,

I am writing on behalf of my colleague XXXX who is currently on leave.

This matter has been raised with the British Parking Association for investigation as they have seen this as potentially a very serious breach of their code of practice.

ANPR PC have provided a response stating that they cannot find a record of the original appeal received from yourself which has resulted in the further correspondence. ANPR PC have confirmed that the notice has now been cancelled and have been trying to identify why this issue has occurred.

From this it appears that both ANPR PC and the BPA have taken this matter seriously and want to resolve this issue. This seems to have been the first time that the DVLA has been made aware of this problem so will not be taking any further action at this time but we will record this incident and monitor the situation in case it should ever arise again.

If however you wish to raise this issue further with the BPA, they can be contacted on [EMAIL="AOS@britishparking.co.uk"]AOS@britishparking.co.uk[/EMAIL] and using the reference BPA-XXXXX BPA:XXXXX

I regret that the DVLA can be of no further assistance at this time.

Kind regards

DVLA

This was my latest response:

Hi XXXX,

Many thanks for your response although I can’t say that I’m surprised at the outcome.

My first concern is the amount of time that has passed since I raised this issue with both the DVLA and the BPA. Both indicated that a relatively short amount of time would pass before I received a response (10 days), yet it was closer to 3 months before I received this confirmation.

In that time I had continued to be intimidated and harassed by ANPR PC, receiving at multiple ‘demand for payment’ letters and threatening of court action from at least 3 different debt recovery firms. I’m disgusted that such firms can be allowed to operate unchecked.

Whilst I thank you for your efforts, I am concerned as to what will actually come of this. The BPA, as we are aware, are simply a self-regulatory body, set up and funded by the Parking Companies themselves. It is in their own interest to ensure their members are protected and are allowed to continue to operate, even if there are breaches of this self-imposed “code of practice”. I do not accept that ANPR PC ‘lost’ the appeal, especially considering they actually replied to me directly after its submission using language that would be suspect of a 5 year old, let alone a supposedly professional company. The whole thing smacks of a sense of self management and that it will simply be brushed under the proverbial carpet.

There needs to be some governmental regulatory body that can actually stand up for the victims in these matters, and stop the intimidatory practices that proliferate this industry. They fact that any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry, can effectively start up a business such as this an gain access to our data held by a governmental organisation such as the DVLA, and then use that data to bully the public into paying exorbitant and unsubstantiated costs is very worrying. I fear for those innocent victims that are unable or unwilling to defend themselves, and simply hand over large sums of cash to what would appear to be nothing more than legitimised crooks. Without the presence of such a body, we rely on the DVLA to help defend our rights, so I am disappointed to hear that you can be of no further assistance.

I will be contacting the BPA, but as I have alluded to above, is see nothing further that they will be willing to do.

Please feel free to pass these comments further up the chain in the DVLA, and onto the minister and governmental department responsible the management of the DVLA. I would be interested to know what recourse they would offer.


Regards,

Chris

Once again, thanks to all concerned.

For reference, I have received nothing from the BPA as yet

Chris

bod1467

Whilst I applaud your (hollow) victory, you should really push back at the DVLA as they have not responded to your complaint - ANPR breached their KADOE agreement, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the BPA.

swinster

I will add a 'PS' to my response and reply back now.....

ampersand

Shouldn't that KADOE point be a strong one, right at the heart of your escalated complaint?

swinster

ampersand wrote: »

Shouldn't that KADOE point be a strong one, right at the heart of your escalated complaint?

Yes, but I have just received this back from the DVLA, even though I thought I have covered this previously.

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, in your previous correspondence you have not provided details or any supporting evidence specifically stating where the KADOE contract has been breached beyond that of alleged non compliance with the British Parking Association (BPA) Code of Practice.

As Mr Dunford advised you, the BPA investigated the claims made in your complaint. Whilst the BPA are working to understand the reasons the original appeal was not dealt with correctly, they are satisfied that there has been no deliberate attempt to breach of the Code of Practice.

If you have evidence that the KADOE contract has been breached, other than the alleged non compliance with the BPA Code of Practice, please forward this to me and the appropriate action will be taken.