Mellicks Solicitors Letter - Smart Parking (Scotland)

der_hammer

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and am very impressed with the amount of detail that goes into the threads. I've read the newbie stuff and stickys but wished to give my own situation in the hope of some advice.

Last September, my wife and I parked up in a car park in Inverness and sat there for around 25 minutes and didn't buy a ticket. We were waiting for a friend and my wife was feeding our child.

Later that day we went into the same car park and I parked in an area that wasn't a parking space, (there were several cars doing the same because the car park was full). We were dropping the friend off and my wife also ran into TK Maxx. Again I never purchased a ticket. No doubt cameras will have seen me getting out the drivers side of the car at one point too to look in the boot of the car. Not sure how relevant that is.

Anyway, here we are today and I have received the two separate parking fines and 4 reminder / final warnings / settlement letters since from Smart and Zenith Collections. Last weekend I received a letter from Mellick's solicitors in Glasgow stating if I don't pay £220, "we have instructions from our clients to issue Court Proceedings for recovery...no further warning or intimation will be given."

Tomorrow is the final chance for me to pay and then the 7 days will have passed.

In this whole time I have never engaged with Smart, Zenith or Mellicks. No letters, phone calls or appeals.

Is this solicitors letter going to result in a summons? How can it when we are only talking about £220. This is driving my wife mad and she believes we should pay the money to get them off our backs and draw a line under it.

All advice/knowledge/experience is very welcome.

Coupon-mad

Ignore. Mellicks were mentioned the other day here. Smart are not litigious and this appears to be a debt letter like any other. They do not know who was driving so do not tell them, do not respond.

Your wife needs to calm down - and that's advice from one woman to another - do not pay scams.

Umkomaas

Again I never purchased a ticket.

Why not? Why do you think landowners employ the likes of Smart? We do not condone fly-parking (bilking).

No doubt cameras will have seen me getting out the drivers side of the car at one point too to look in the boot of the car.

Which cameras are these?

Last weekend I received a letter from Mellick's solicitors in Glasgow

This thread already started. Read and learn.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5632535

Smart have never taken anyone to court in England/Wales - and they can pursue the keeper as well as driver in E/W. It will be infinitely more difficult in Scotland where they can pursue only the driver (no keeper liability north of the border). As long as you don't tell them who the driver was - they'll never know. And they won't have CCTV footage!

Please don't quote the £24,000 court case as a reason to be worried - the driver was identified and there were 200 outstanding tickets.

When asked to pay for a parking ticket on a car park in future, pay it, then it saves all this crap.

fisherjim

Blatent actions like this (and you knew exactly what you were doing was wrong) are the very reason that ppc's have become so widespread!

der_hammer

fisherjim wrote: »

Blatent actions like this (and you knew exactly what you were doing was wrong) are the very reason that ppc's have become so widespread!

On reflection, yes of course I should have paid. But considering it at the time, the first trip was to drive in and drive out. The fact we were feeding our baby stopped us. The second time there were no parking spaces, which is why I and several others were parked within the car park but not in actual spaces.


I appreciate the replies and I would certainly not condone my own actions, which is why I had never before received a parking ticket.

Coupon-mad

You still haven't received a parking ticket.

der_hammer

Just an update as to the latest letter I've received (I'll type out the relevant bits as I'm shocking with uploading images):


Mellicks Solicitors Letter from a month ago stated -

"We act for Smart Parking Limited,

You have incurred a liability of £220.00. We write to inform you that unless the sum is paid, we have instructions from our clients to issue Court proceedings for recovery against you. No further intimation or warning will be given.

We are now instructed in this matter and all further correspondence/payment should be sent to this firm."



Latest letter from DRP:


"Notice of intended court proceedings - unpaid parking charges £320.00.

Further to our previous correspondence I am writing personally as I have been instructed by our client to obtain settlement for parking charges incurred.

You are no doubt familiar with the recent 'Dundee case'...

I appreciate you may not be able to afford to pay the charges all at once, which is why I'm encouraging you to contact me to discuss proposal for repayment.

If you do not contact me, I will assume you are refusing to pay, and I will report to my client that they should take legal action to recover the monies owed."



So it has gone from Mellicks telling me this is your last warning, to DRP telling me to get in touch with them to settle. I assume they want me to contact them which is the reason for the letter.

Throughout this whole process, I have kept every letter received, and never once been in contact with the four companies that have now written to me over this.

Safe to continue this line of action? Keep the letters and do nothing else?

beamerguy

der_hammer wrote: »

Just an update as to the latest letter I've received (I'll type out the relevant bits as I'm shocking with uploading images):


Mellicks Solicitors Letter from a month ago stated -

"We act for Smart Parking Limited,

You have incurred a liability of £220.00. We write to inform you that unless the sum is paid, we have instructions from our clients to issue Court proceedings for recovery against you. No further intimation or warning will be given.

We are now instructed in this matter and all further correspondence/payment should be sent to this firm."



Latest letter from DRP:


"Notice of intended court proceedings - unpaid parking charges £320.00.

Further to our previous correspondence I am writing personally as I have been instructed by our client to obtain settlement for parking charges incurred.


You are no doubt familiar with the recent 'Dundee case'...

I appreciate you may not be able to afford to pay the charges all at once, which is why I'm encouraging you to contact me to discuss proposal for repayment.

If you do not contact me, I will assume you are refusing to pay, and I will report to my client that they should take legal action to recover the monies owed."



So it has gone from Mellicks telling me this is your last warning, to DRP telling me to get in touch with them to settle. I assume they want me to contact them which is the reason for the letter.

Throughout this whole process, I have kept every letter received, and never once been in contact with the four companies that have now written to me over this.

Safe to continue this line of action? Keep the letters and do nothing else?

As coupon-mad said earlier, Mellicks were trying to do a bit of debt collection, proven by this being passed to DRP.

DRP continue to waste their time as usual.

DRP HAVE NO POWER WHATSOEVER, it's just a phishing letter trying to scam you out of money, all they can do is pass it back to Smart.
Smart must know who was driving in scotland and as you are not going to tell them or even talk to them, just sit tight regardless if the stupid DRP letters keep coming. Most of what DRP put in their letters, they live in cloud cuckoo land, pure dreamers

The recent Dundee case involved 200 tickets and the person admitted they were driving

Stupid DRP ???

pogofish

Standard debt collection scary-stuff.

The threat of DRP is quite laughable..!

The_Deep

Is this solicitors letter going to result in a summons? How can it when we are only talking about £220.

Quite recently someone was sued by a PPC for an underpayment of 5 pence. You really need to acquaint yourself with the Law of Contract if you are going to trespass on peoples' land.

DoaM

DRP cannot take you to court - period. They have no material claim, therefore any threats are just that - threats.

Only Smart Parking can take you to court, and they haven't done so for anyone in Scotland (yet). You're highly unlikely to be their first ever case.