DRP✔ Zenith✔ ... Gladstone Solicitors. Should I now respond?

DOMRIDER

Hello - hoping for some helpful advice from you knowledgeable forum posters.

Background of parking incident: I had paid for 3 hours of parking at a car park managed by Smart Parking LTD. I left 30 mins late on a Sunday evening the car park was nearly empty. There was sufficient signage and their T&Cs on display seem pretty watertight.

Some months later my mother received a DRP letter (addressed to me) demanding payment for an unpaid PCN of £160. This was the first I had been made aware of the situation, the PCN had gone to my previous address from which I had just moved away from. Before I found these forums (I would not have sent a letter otherwise) I simply sent a letter back to Debt Recovery Plus Ltd.

I informed DRP that I had recently moved address and had only just updated the DVLA of my new address. I also asked whether I could be advised of the evidence relating to Parking Charge Notice and asked them to respond to my current address.

Consequently I received a number of letters from DRP and then Zenith but to the incorrect address and they never acknowledged the letter I sent.

I read up on these forums and decided to wait it out and see if they would stop. They kept coming and now I have a letter from Gladstone Solicitors asking for a sum of £300. I am not sure whether this a LBCCC it does state that ‘our client would like to provide you with this opportunity to contact their agent to make full payment’ stating that if you don’t pay within 14 days please keep our client and DRP updated as to your current details to ensure that your ability to defend any such action is protected as any CCJ or Decree can have serious effect on a person’s credit rating.

The letter was sent 12 days ago and I have only just been told about it. Could somebody please advise as to how I need to proceed?

Thanks for your time and advise in advance.

Umkomaas

as any CCJ or Decree

Are you based in Scotland?

DOMRIDER

No, Unfortunately - England.

Umkomaas

To whom does the Gladstones letter tell you to pay?

pogofish

You actually engaged with a debt collector...? You need to stop digging a bigger hole for yourself..!

First thing you need to do is read the Newbies Sticky carefully, taking note of the Scotland-specific advice if that's where you are.

DOMRIDER

The photograph of the letter is a little blurred so I am waiting on a scan. But I'm pretty sure it is DRP LTD.

DOMRIDER

pogofish wrote: »

You actually engaged with a debt collector...? You need to stop digging a bigger hole for yourself..!

First thing you need to do is read the Newbies Sticky carefully, taking note of the Scotland-specific advice if that's where you are.

As previously noted I am not from Scotland. I am not engaged with a debt collector either to my knowledge. Thanks.

Umkomaas

If it's to pay DRP then the letter has been sent by DRP using Gladstones letterhead ..... and can be ignored.

So given that you have 'innocently' taken this to have come from Gladstones solicitors, they 'should' be holding your personal data (of course they aren't, but time to put them on the spot) - drop a Subject Access Request on them and say that given they have written to you, you want to know of all the personal data they hold about you, from where they obtained it, with whom it's been shared .......

Here's a thread discussing SARs, so there'll be ideas in it for you to work from.

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

Turn the tables (and screw) a bit. Hassle can so easily be a two-way street!

beamerguy

The Gladstones boys are on their scam rubbish again.

They are asking you to pay the !!!!!! debt collectors who are as powerless as a dead fly.

You don't owe £300, it's all part of the scam.

THE £60 SCAM OPERATED BY DRP ?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5859454/debt-collectors-drp-zzps-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know&highlight=debt+collectors+drp

YOU MUST advise the Gladstones boys of your current address with a copy to the PPC requesting confirmation.

You cannot afford any more letters going to the wrong address.

When you advise them, you are THE KEEPER, never the driver

DOMRIDER

Umkomaas wrote: »

If it's to pay DRP then the letter has been sent by DRP using Gladstones letterhead ..... and can be ignored.

So given that you have 'innocently' taken this to have come from Gladstones solicitors, they 'should' be holding your personal data (of course they aren't, but time to put them on the spot) - drop a Subject Access Request on them and say that given they have written to you, you want to know of all the personal data they hold about you, from where they obtained it, with whom it's been shared .......

Here's a thread discussing SARs, so there'll be ideas in it for you to work from.

Turn the tables (and screw) a bit. Hassle can so easily be a two-way street!

Thanks. I will send a letter to Gladstone Solictors based on that thread in that case. I assume I still ignore the letters from DRP? Do you think you could shed any light on the outcome at this moment?

beamerguy

DOMRIDER wrote: »

Thanks. I will send a letter to Gladstone Solictors based on that thread in that case. I assume I still ignore the letters from DRP? Do you think you could shed any light on the outcome at this moment?

DRP and all debt collectors are pointless idiots which you can ignore

Nobody can say about the outcome but just bear in mind that Gladstones are highly incompetent

Your next letter will probably be a LBA which you do not ignore and that will come from Gladstones

Read up about this incompetent bunch

https://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/search?q=gladstones