Advise Please - PCN (NTK) from VCS

NicamStereo

Hi all,

Just looking for a little advise reference a Parking Charge Notice received by me as a Notice to Keeper. This was issued by Vehicle Control Services , member of IAS. The contravention reason is a 46 Stopping In a Zone where Stopping is Prohibited.

The incident occurred at a Retail Park where the overall site is split into two main sections with a shared access road splitting them. The first section of the park has parking restrictions, the other section has no parking restrictions at all. The access road has a notice right at the entrance way and then signage on only one side of the road - the same side as the section of the site with parking restrictions. There is no signage on the access road on the side adjacent to the section without parking restriction.

What happened was the driver parked validly in the carpark of the first section, and then after shopping, moved the vehicle onto the access road, halted briefly to collect a passenger who had walked across to the second section to pick up goods from another store. Vehicle was halted for no more than two minutes at most, whilst the boot was popped, passenger loaded the couple of items and then got into the vehicle. No traffic hindered during this brief pause. The evidence collected by VCS was from a CCTV van which was parked up (on this same stretch of no stopping road!) no more than 15 feet behind.

I have appealed to VC directly and their response was to reject and request the driver details. I've declined that request for info and submitted what i believed to be a plea for common sense to prevail. They have rejected this and now it's a in position where i either pay their fine or appeal via IAS.

Any thoughts on whether i should take it on the chin and payup or to push through IAS and onto the courts process? To me, this seems to be a case of an honest mistake made in blissful ignorance of such tightly enforced rules.

Any help or advise offered is much appreciated.

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

The general advice here is not to try the kangaroo court that is called the IAS.

What happened when you complained to the landowner/retail managers of the places an occupant of the car visited?

Please complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

Other than that you are ignore mode unless you get real court papers.

NicamStereo

Hi, thanks for your quick reply Fruitcake. Yes I did read on here that IAS seem to be a farce so not expecting much through that route other than jump through the hoop to the next stage of debt recovery/court.

I spoke with the retail managers of both stores very soon after the notice was received. They were both pretty shocked to be fair but were reliant on area managers to follow up with landlords. Bear in mind this was in December and despite giving me plenty of their time it was the leadtime to peak trading for them so not top of their priorities I imagine. I've only just this morning taken it on myself to directly contact the Ops Director for one of the stores - I found the contact details via the sticky on this forum.

Other than that, is there any communication or steps I can take to ensure no 3rd party debt collection services are made? Clearly if I refute the claim with VCS I want to press straight ahead to the court stage rather than allow VCS to mount up uneeded debt collection fees which they may then add to total to attempt to collect.

beamerguy

NicamStereo wrote: »

Other than that, is there any communication or steps I can take to ensure no 3rd party debt collection services are made? Clearly if I refute the claim with VCS I want to press straight ahead to the court stage rather than allow VCS to mount up uneeded debt collection fees which they may then add to total to attempt to collect.

Until this is cancelled and you need to put pressure on with the Ops Director, these rogue traders continue the scam with idiot debt collectors WHO YOU TOTALLY IGNORE

Just read this and especially when you receive debt collector letters, probably from DRP that they lie and mislead and are probably acting illegally

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/74439905#Comment_74439905

NicamStereo

thanks for your comments and share of the link Beamerguy. Very interesting read and it's taken my stress level down a notch or two. However, I didn't quite follow the six year ruling - is this saying I would have a black mark on my credit rating for up to six years if I refute the claim?

Fruitcake

Six years is how long the scammers have to start court if they want to.

Ignore debt collectors as they have no powers.
Post 4 of the NEWBIES explains this.

If you move in the next six years, tell the scammers your new address for service. Keep everything you receive until then.

No black mark possible unless you lose in court, fail to pay, have a court order to pay against you, fail to pay that, and the scammers then get a CCJ from the court against you which you don't them pay within the prescribed timescales.
All of the above is under your control.

NicamStereo

Ah ok thanks for the clarification on the six year piece, Fruitcake.

Mind made up on next steps.

I) Go through the farce that is the IAS appeal (and lose).

2) completely Ignore debt recovery letters

3) await the court step for up to six years.

In parallel, i'll press the retail store management and MPs for support.

The only other thing, can phony PCN's be mocked up and issued to VCS for breaching their own no stopping/waiting code? Just wondering in case photographic evidence of the CCTV van happened to fall into my lap in the near future.