Pre-Popla claim still being chased

wilberforce23

Hi,

I should start by saying that I've thoroughly read the sticky, but I think this situation is slightly abnormal so warranted a post. I received a Parking Charge Notice from VCS almost two years ago, shortly before the introduction of Popla. Following the advice here at the time, I did not respond. After a couple of letters they went away, but are now chasing again via Newlyn. I am the registered keeper but was not the driver. If I at some point before court proceedings (assuming they don't give up by then) name the driver, will they be forced to issue a new PCN which can be dealt with by the appeal/Popla process even though the original claim was pre-Popla? Is this the best route? I don't really want to involve the driver if possible, but I'd like a definitive ending rather than waiting for another letter to come in another two years. The original claim was postal (ANPR), and it was in a retail park with free parking that was marginally overstayed. I am thinking as a first attempt to contact the retailer concerned and complain. Is this sensible if it was so long ago, and assuming they only have the leasehold on the premises and do not own the car park? It would seem from everyone else's posts that contacting Newlyn is pretty futile.

Also, does anyone have any experience of losing a case and the actual cost to them? There seems to be a lot of unhelpful stuff on these forums saying 'they won't take you to court' or 'they never win' but then people admitting that actually they have been taken to court, and that there are a reasonable number of cases that have been lost. Most of the ones I've seen where the driver won did seem to have extenuating circumstances rather than using the standard arguments re. contracts/damages etc. It obviously doesn't help that hardly anyone comes back on the forums to report success.

pogofish

Its not abnormal at all - There have been loads of threads on necro tickets in the last few months. At least one of which was active on the top page of the forum earlier today.

However, POFA changes nothing as it was not retrospective, so there is no keeper liability and this is just another attempt to scam you, so stop taking it seriously and keep-on ignoring.

ETA - Here, just follow the advice from the bottom of page 2 when the op gets the new demand!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4217471

Stroma

This letter to you is one of hundreds or maybe thousands that have been sent. There is no keeper liability so it highly unlikely to do court! And the reason why people say they don't do court is the fact that they went to court 22 times in the 12 months to October 2013, in that period they got 5,635 RK details from the dvla, now you do the maths.

I have done the maths for you, they went to court 0.4% of the time on tickets issued, so 99.6% of the time they didn't do court.

Coupon-mad

Just to add, it's the same as here and on lots of threads recently, search this forum for 'Newlyn' as a keyword and you will find several like this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4027635

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4217471

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4940840

The Newlyn computer has obviously just issued a batch of 'scraping barrel' follow up threatograms which no doubt makes some victims worry and pay up. You are not a victim and on MSE even a small claim is rare and defendable with a high win rate for our posters. I think VCS just lost one last week didn't they, others might recall it, 3 tickets being chased and the defendant was up for the fight! Apart from that I can't recall one before that except Ibbotson which they also lost (shown as a link in the NEWBIES thread, post #6 small claims cases won, well worth reading!).