Park Direct UXBRIDGE

hometime

Hi all, I just received a letter from park direct stating I have 14 days to pay up or expect proceedings for the sum of £100.00. The incident took place 03/10/2014 and PCN was issued 07/10/2014. Now I can not recall ever receiving any letters from them as I sort my post every weekend.

I have contacted them today and the crook on the phone stated that there was a picture of the car and no one in the vehicle as they have left the car. That does not sound right as I know the parking in question and I would at most stopped there for a few minutes and headed off immediately. I say this because I know friends have left their cars in the past here and comeback to clamped vehicles so I can only assume I must have at most waited for my partner and then headed off immediately after say a couple of minutes.

I have not seen the photos and I have been informed to send a written letter requesting this however regardless of this, as soon as I am over the 14 days, they will pursue with debt recovery. A bit harsh I think

Please could you guide me as to my best options moving forward because all I can say is I do not intend to pay £100.00 of my hard earned money to a private company for a 2 minute wait.absolutely shocking seeing this letter drop this morning.

Coupon-mad

OK so ParkDirect are notorious for issuing postal PCNs without any audit trail. What that means is, they post them out like they say they did to you, yet there was never a windscreen PCN nor do they have ANPR cameras (which is the only way the DVLA allow them to issue postal PCNs).

So your first step is to complain by email to Steve Clark of the BPA, and copy in the DVLA (both emails are in post #6 of the NEWBIES sticky thread). You complain only as KEEPER, not saying who was driving at any point.

Also don't ring the scumbags again. Write and tell them you have complained to the BPA because there was neither a windscreen PCN nor an ANPR camera-generated one, and indeed no post arrived from them until this latest letter. Even if the 'PCN' they mention had arrived it would be unenforceable because sending a postal PCN breaches their KADOE contract with the DVLA because it means there is not the required audit trail. As such, you will not be paying, as keeper you are not liable anyway as they've not served a compliant Notice under the POFA, and they will find the BPA will be investigating the matter. So finish by saying you trust they will immediately cancel this 'charge' (and tell them to go swivel!).

To find out how to write about the lack of audit trail/KADOE contract, look at the results when you search the forum for the words 'drive-away' with a hyphen, where I have mentioned this before and have shown an example POPLA appeal with that point spelt out. I know yours isn't a POPLA appeal but the wording would show you what to write in the complaint emails.

ParkDirect are notorious ex-clampers who used to seize cars within minutes at that site, with a woman with a mobile phone tipping the clamping thugs off about any car where the driver stepped away. Now they do a similar scam but merely taking a sneaky photo of the car in the distance, taken on a crummy mobile phone (and the driver is often in view, in the car - or within feet of the car). Then they send rubbishy dingy photos on a Notice to registered keepers, pretending you have to pay them. Not much different from clamping then!

Complain in the strongest terms to the BPA in particular as they have allowed PD to carry on doing this for two years since clamping was banned, and yet it is outwith the BPA code and outwith the DVLA KADOE contract for getting data.

hometime

I have contacted Steve and DVLA and I have been informed by Steve they will look into it. I have also now sent a letter to ParkDirect informing them of my actions and that I will not be making payment to them. I will await response by both.

bazster

Coupon-mad wrote: »

OK so ParkDirect are notorious for issuing postal PCNs without any audit trail. What that means is, they post them out like they say they did to you, yet there was never a windscreen PCN nor do they have ANPR cameras (which is the only way the DVLA allow them to issue postal PCNs).

If that's the case (and I too have seen the audit paperwork confirming this) how the hell does a company like Flashpark manage to operate? Their entire model is based on issuing postal PCN's without ANPR, it's all they do!

Guess I've got something else to start hammering the DVLA about!