Smark Parking Ltd - DRP and Gladstones

tarajonesdixon

Hi
Last christmas I parked in a car park for christmas shopping. My partner bought a 2 hour ticket but appeared to have put in the car reg incorrectly into the machine. He went to the car park attendant on duty who said the machines had been playing up and called the office on his mobile. We were advised to write the correct reg number on the back of the ticket, that the attendant would remember us and we would be fine. We returned within the given time and left the car park.


In the new year I received a letter from smart parking saying I had not had a valid ticket/insufficient time and we owed £160. I appealed. I lost the appeal on the grounds that the discussion with the car park attendant was between him and me and not valid.


I have to date now received 9 letters from DRP Plus saying I owe them money - £160 (2 letters under their trading name Zenith Collections. I have repeatedly emailed back the following:

I write in connection with the latest correspondence from DRP, undated but recieved on 15th July, this time under the trading name of Zenith Collections, in connection with continuous demands for payment of a debt that I do not owe (see below):

list of dates of letters here

As I have advised DRP Ltd on each separate occasion, I do not owe any money to Smart Parking Ltd and do not acknowledge any debt with them.


As stated in my previous responses:
A ticket was purchased (of two hours) which was validated by an employed representative of Smart Parking Ltd who was on site at the time. This was validated by the Smart Parking representative following a telephone call to the offices of Smart Parking Ltd on the date and time in question. The ticket required validation because of a mistyped registration number which had been issued by a faulty machine. This validated ticket adequately covered the time stayed in the car park, plus time allowed for looking for a space and driving from the car park (total time in the car park being 2 hours and 1 minute from entry to the car park to exit). Therefore the PCN was not legitimately issued and no monies are due to Smart Parking Ltd.


As already stated in my previous responses to your company's continuous and repetitive demands for payment, I do not owe any money to Smart Parking Ltd and do not acknowledge any debt with them. I am prepared to defend any claim made against me in court.

In the last email I added the following:

As stated in my previous correspondence, I am seeking legal advice as well as intending to pursue a complaint through the relevant channels. I consider your continual ignoring of my responses to your demands for payments as harrassment because I have told you repeatedly that I do not owe any money to Smart Parking Ltd.

I have now received a letter from Gladstones Solicitors who note that their client now has the option to commence proceedings.



I fully intend to see this to court as I am furious that I got this 'fine' given we did everything we could to ensure our ticket was valid.



I have looked on your Newbie Section but I find it a little confusing and am not sure which letter to send to Gladstones. Please would you advise which one I should send.


Thank you. Your help is much appreciated.

Fruitcake

You should have ignored the letters from the debt collectors. Post 4 of the NEWBIES tells you why it is safe to do so.
Never, ever contact a debt crawler. It is a complete waste of time.

To whom does the letter from Gladrags tell you to pay? Who do they say is the creditor?
The reason I ask is that this could simply be another debt crawler letter. If it isn't, then you need to read the guide to court you will find in post 2 of the NEWBIES.

onlyfoolsandparking

Did you get the full name of the Attendant otherwise the way I see it no proof and in the short time I've been on here battling my PCN proof is everything!!.


The PPC,s don't give a toss about feelings, morals or doing the right thing. They have to beaten legally and they CAN be.


I wouldn't even bother corresponding with Gladys Rags, wait till a LBA or LBCCC comes (if it does of course) and then deal with as the NEWBIES thread suggests.

tarajonesdixon

Gladstones say they have been instructed by Smart Parking Ltd and that I need to contact the client's agent DRP Plus ot discuss the payment proposal. It then says that if I do not pay within the next 14 days I need to keep their client and their agents updated as to my current address to ensure my ability to defend any such action is protected as any CCCJ or Decree can have a serious effect etc etc

pogofish

Please stop wasting our time by posting-up DRP drivel - post four of the Newbies Sticky covers this completely.

tarajonesdixon

No, I didn't get the name of the attendant but, I did note in my appeal that I would require access to mobile phone records under data protection. I could probably find out the attendant's name though.

nosferatu1001

If its telling you to pay DRP

IT
IS
FROM
DRP

Yes, that looks a lot like fraud, but five minutes searching would have told you this.

pogofish

Hang-on..!

OP already has a thread going about this ticket - posting another is overkill and will not get you any different help.

tarajonesdixon

Thank you Pogofish. I don't think there was any need to be so rude.
Actually I can no longer find the newbies thread. I've typed newbies into the search but still no joy

Fruitcake

tarajonesdixon wrote: »

Thank you Pogofish. I don't think there was any need to be so rude.
Actually I can no longer find the newbies thread. I've typed newbies into the search but still no joy

It's just below where you clicked on the button.

Coupon-mad

I can no longer find the newbies thread.

But it's at the top of the first page of this board, when you use 'FORUM JUMP'

...or by clicking on the words at the top (small blue 'breadcrumb trail' to find your way back off a thread) which is shown at the top of every page, like my signature tells you. Look at my signature - have you never noticed the breadcrumb trail at the top of any page? Try it.

In the new year I received a letter from smart parking saying I had not had a valid ticket/insufficient time and we owed £160. I appealed. I lost the appeal on the grounds that the discussion with the car park attendant was between him and me and not valid.

Next time, use the appeal from the NEWBIES thread. This PCN would have been cancelled in January, had you come here earlier & followed the advice to appeal as registered keeper.

As for now, this DRP tedious stage is covered in the NEWBIES thread 4th post, where it begs people not to start any new thread about DRP letters. IGNORE THEM.