Penalty Charge Notice issued at Sennen Cove Beach car park for not displaying a valid ticket

69jase

Apologies for the length of the message. I recently received a Penalty Charge Notice at Sennen Cove Beach car park for not displaying a valid ticket.

I submitted an appeal to Armtrac Security explaining that I had purchased a valid ticket for the day at a cost of £5 via Credit Card and had placed it on the dashboard so it was visible. I honestly admitted that with focusing on getting my 3 year old son out of the car safely (being parked at the end of a row and cars were passing at the time), I did not check the ticket was still visible before leaving the car, and that I can only assume the ticket was blown over when the door/boot was closed. I also explained that I had approached their parking attendant on duty after having received the notice to explain the situation and I also showed him the valid ticket. However, he stated there was nothing he could do about it as the PCN had been issued and advised contacting Armtrac Security, ensuring to attach a copy (emphasising not to send the original) of the valid ticket. He also gave me some advice on using an empty CD case in future to avoid the ticket blowing over!

I emailed Armtrac Security the same evening and obviously they rejected the appeal on the basis that “The ticket displayed within your vehicle at the time of inspection by our Patrol Officer was face down and not displayed correctly therefore invalid and the PCN was legitimately issued”.

I did query with them that the serial number of the ticket in the photo taken by their parking attendant matched that of the ticket in my photo and therefore does this not provide evidence of having purchased a valid ticket. However, their response was “As Armtrac Security Services are not the landowner we have no access to the pay and display machines on site in order to be able to check serial numbers on tickets and as already stated the only way our Patrol Officers are able to ascertain if a vehicle has permission to park is by them being able to inspect all the details on the ticket for validity at the time of inspection”.

Having further explored this issue online, I have not wasted any further effort making an appeal to the IAS. Furthermore, I have decided to try and not let them get away with this daylight robbery, by not paying and risk whether they do take it to the Small Claims Court. The land owner is not out of pocket. I still have the original parking ticket and this was paid for using a Credit Card, which identifies the location and date of transaction on the statement.

As expected, I received what appears to be their standard letter dated 15th October requesting making the payment of £100.00 to avoid further action (i.e. debt recovery or court)

Any advice gratefully sought.

Many thanks

KeithP

Ignore everything unless, or until, you receive a Letter of Claim or official court correspondence.

If that happens, and you still need help, post again on this thread.

Umkomaas

I have decided to try and not let them get away with this daylight robbery

Do you mean give them some of their own grief back to be getting on with?

Why not send them a SAR? That will indicate to them that you understand some of this stuff and you have the capability of causing them as much mischief as they are trying to cause you!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5849784/june-2018-start-of-the-new-ppc-and-dvla-fightback-gdpr-related

the only way our Patrol Officers are able to ascertain if a vehicle has permission to park is by them being able to inspect all the details on the ticket for validity at the time of inspection

That's good, so you need to see all the notes made by said PO about your vehicle. You are entitled to have copies of any notes made about your vehicle. Failure to provide will result in a formal complaint to the ICO, which has the potential to threaten closure of their business. Cough up the info - or face the consequences.

69jase

Many thanks for the reassurance to continue as I was intending.

Ralph-y

and .........


as a further boost to your confidence .......


read and watch what MP's think re this scam ...




https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

and slightly longer, the committee stage

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/d5550515-cce9-4185-83ec-754dadb7524a

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

These are the exact words used, so you should quote them to your MP in a complaint and ask him/her to contact Sir Greg Knight MP if he wants further information about this scam.

and some quotes from the committe stage

"The other area is hospital parking, and I want to single out one company for some pretty shady practices. That is ParkingEye"
" is very clear to me that there is collusion between parking companies and solicitors’ firms—so-called roboclaims companies. "
"They are often set up adjacently and involve the same directors and personnel. Incidentally, the same personnel get involved in the so-called appeals bodies."
"Essentially, it is a money-making enterprise that takes advantage of motorists up and down the country. They operate in a very business-like fashion, which is why I call them roboclaims companies."
"The companies are jamming up parts of our legal system."
“I now pretty much know exactly how the parking companies and in particular the IPC have been running this scam for the past 5 years. Basically both of the appeals processes are a complete and utter sham, (and part of that sham is Gladstones Solicitors itself)”
"The appeals process at Excel/VCS is run by a team of minimum wage office workers with no legal knowledge or experience whatsoever,"
" It is claimed by the head of the appeals service (retired Judge Bryn Holloway) that this is a completely independent fair process, it is not”
"The letter mentions two individuals—Will Hurley and Bryn Holloway—and concludes this is a typical example of the clear collusion between the IPC, their members and the IAS"
"what we can do about roboclaims companies and solicitors firms that profit, often in shady ways"
" the very large amounts of money that can be involved in such scams—a company called Smart Parking was involved in one such scam on my patch"
"tightening up the rules regarding the unfair use of automatic number plate recognition" "BW Legal, regularly issues 10,000 county court judgments a month, and is known to have issued 28,000 in one month"
"They are jamming up our court system, and are often totally unjustified."
" because the lifeblood of trying to extort money from people is having access to their details."

All from Parking (Code of Practice) Bill (First sitting) Hansard






Ralph:cool:

Redx

69jase wrote: »

I recently received a Penalty Charge Notice at Sennen Cove Beach car park for not displaying a valid ticket.

no you did not, you received a Parking Charge Notice, completely different item, its common name is an INVOICE

69jase

Thank you for picking up on the typo Redx. It is indeed a Parking Charge Notice NOT a Penalty Charge Notice.

Fruitcake

Have you complained to your MP yet about this unregulated scam? All the information you need to do this is in post 1 of the NEWBIES.

69jase

Not as yet Fruit, but many thanks, I will be doing thanks to yours and others advice.

HateVCS

Hi 69jase
I recently won a similar case against VCS - I had paid for a ticket but allegedly breached one of the conditions.
What surprised me most was finding out that VCS did not get the parking fees from the machines on site - these went to the site owner. VCS had a contract with the owner to obtain income from issuing PCNs for so-called breaches of contract. So that's why these companies write so many rules, are aggressive about policing them, and appeals fail. Appealing to the site owner might not work because, in my case, the owner had to pay a fee for requesting VCS to cancel a ticket.
The PCN is simply an unsolicited invoice for damages relating to an alleged breach of one of the terms of a contract that you probably didn't realise you had made. If it goes to court, I'm sure that the judge will place greater weight in fact that you paid - which they cannot dispute - that any claim for a trivial error. That was my experience.
If you have the energy, make life tough for them now and don't be intimidated. Good luck.

Umkomaas

^^ Nice FightBack ^^ :T

Appealing to the site owner might not work because, in my case, the owner had to pay a fee for requesting VCS to cancel a ticket.

And if they were to wish to cancel the contract, there would be an eye-watering termination clause, as in PE and Somerfield, where £1/3 of a million was upheld by the court (PE didn't come out of it bathed in glory, but were still nonetheless bathed in pound notes!).