old parking fines reappearing

driverZ

Hi,
I was given a parking ticket in November 2010, which was for an exorbitant amount in a private car park next to' centertainment'. I was parked outside the bays, as were a lot of other cars. I ignored the fine, and was contacted by the parking company and the fee went up to £120. I ignored this, and did not hear from them til 6 years later. Their debt has been passed on to a legal team (BW Legal), who have increased the fine to £174, and have threatened me with county court, bailiffs, the lot. I probably should have appealed the ticket when I first got it, but never got round to it. Has anyone else had experience of this? does anyone have any advice?

Umkomaas

This forum and PePiPoo are awash with Excel/VCS (Excel sister company)/BWL. Take some time to read these threads because all the actions you need to take will be detailed in those, dependent on where you are in the BWL process.

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

This is a relatively recent strategy of an absolute blizzard of late claims by BWL on behalf of the above two operators. None have finally played out to conclusion to give us a pattern that we can use to forecast likely outcome.

But the case against you is very old and it indeed looks like a last throw of the dice, because after 6 years their ability to pursue this through the courts expires by statute.

Grimble

Pre POFA 2012, they can only go after the driver, never tell them who was driving.

beamerguy

driverZ wrote: »

Hi,
I was given a parking ticket in November 2010, which was for an exorbitant amount in a private car park next to' centertainment'. I was parked outside the bays, as were a lot of other cars. I ignored the fine, and was contacted by the parking company and the fee went up to £120. I ignored this, and did not hear from them til 6 years later. Their debt has been passed on to a legal team (BW Legal), who have increased the fine to £174, and have threatened me with county court, bailiffs, the lot. I probably should have appealed the ticket when I first got it, but never got round to it. Has anyone else had experience of this? does anyone have any advice?

They can threaten what they want ? the only thing they can threaten you with is taking you to court and as Grimble says about, Pre POFA 2012, they can only go after the driver, never tell them who was driving.

Whoever the driver was nearly 6 years ago ...... who knows.

BTLegal are about to get themselves in a lot of trouble, they are indeed a very odd firm and as the prankster says .. "BW Legal are therefore early contenders for The Prankster's "Most Incompetent Solicitors of The Year" annual award."

A great read if you have not read it.
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=bw+legal

Again .... they can only threaten you with court, forget the bailiff rubbish and anything else they say, it is to scare you.

Wonder how they will handle court especially Pre POFA 2012, they can only go after the driver. Would doubt a judge would remember who was driving his car 6 years ago

BW Legal are a joke. I would imagine they are one those "here today, gone tomorrow" companies who jumped on the cash cow.. who will probably exit with egg on their face

yotmon

Slightly off topic. Does the 6 year rule cover the actual court date or the laying of information to the court. I'm thinking about the 6 months for summary offences, I'm sure that the information has to be laid within the time for a summons to be served, but the first hearing date could run over the 6 months limit. Or have I got it completely wrong.....

pappa_golf

murky water is its not a debt , its a speculative invoice


in the case of a debt , the company has 6 years from the offence (in the case of credit , a default) to start court action in the CC


a private parking co can only chase via the CC for 6 yrs from the date of the offence .


in the case of a debt , you still actually owe the money , but a judge would not allow a court case due to delay


in the case of a PPC , well they would just have to send the "heavies" round


I see that your case is nov 2010 , might be better doing a delay tactic move and slow the process down


I notice that VCS have 2 x UK cases today and excel x1, so things might be starting to happen now ,


await others views with regard to stall tactics


a typical (and good) letter quilled by Gan on pepopoo


"Dear Sir

I was the registered keeper of the vehicle in question.
I was not, however, the driver.

As this incident was before The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, you have never had any right to pursue me for payment.

I note your attempt to mislead me regarding your £54 legal costs
You are well aware that these cannot be recovered in the Small Claims court

Your blatant disregard for the Solicitors Code of Conduct is shameful"

The_Deep

Report them to the SRA here


https://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page

The_Slithy_Tove

driverZ wrote: »

I was given a parking ticket in November 2010
...
I probably should have appealed the ticket when I first got it

No, you did absolutely the right thing at the time by ignoring it. You'd have lost any appeal anyway, with no attempt at an "independent" second stage appeal. No-one could have predicted that such old and pre-POFA tickets would be resurrected after such a long time.