How to handle from here?

Businessguy9

Hello all, Another new user here hoping to pick your brains. I have gone through the newbie thread and found some info relating to hire cars but not specifically my situation, so im here hopefully to have some light shed on the situation.


I own my own limited company, and am employed as it's director along with my fellow business partner who is also a director. We only have between 4-6 employees depending on workload so it varies through out the year. Our new( to us ) Receptionist/Secretary has been with us around 10 months now having previously worked for builders yard, 2 days ago i saw a letter on her desk from Gladstones Solicitors.


After some enquiring i've discovered it relates to a parking offence back in May 2018. When i asked why she didnt let me know about this, apparently it was standard practice at her last post to file them in a draw and forget about them as "they never amount to anything" apparently. I'm a little dubious about this, hence my presence on your forum.



The letters start from a private parking company called Premier park asking for £100 reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.They then progress to a company called DRP asking for payment of £160, these seem to come every month until November when it changes to a company called Zenith Collections, demading much the same, £160 or they can instruct their client to go to county court. The most recent one, received on Tuesday is from a solicitors named Gladstones.


This one repeats pretty much the same as the previous letters, says their client now has the option to commence proceedings in the appropriate civil court. It's reccomends to contact their client ( which appears to be the aformentioned DRP ) and settle the debt and not to contact themselves? Is that normal for a solitors?


My main issue is, the vehicle is a company van, used by everybody as needed and i have no idea who was at the wheel at the time of the ticket back in May 2018, i could ask, but my feeling is nobody would admit it regardless. The company is the owner and registered keeper of the vehicle. I've not contacted or replied in anyway to these companies due to only being made aware this week, so, my question(s) are, where do i go from here?



Any pointers and/or help would be very much appreciated.

Umkomaas

It's a DRP letter using Gladstones letterhead if it instructs to make payment to DRP. All part of the wider scam. DRP can't take anyone to court in a private parking case.

It's not to say that the parking company won't (and probably via Gladstones) - but this isn't at that stage. Ignore it for now, but come back if you receive a Letter Before Claim or real court papers.

Meantime read about the game you've been dragged into and the processes you will need to go through if this transpires into a court case by reading the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #2 in particular.

The_Deep

It I is a scam and Gladstones are thee ringleaders.

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers, (very often former clampers), be put out of business.

Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

Businessguy9

Thanks for the reply's guys.


So basically just sit on it until any further correspondence arrives.

Coupon-mad

Premier Park read this forum - see Andrew Gogun's thread (search the members' list). They sent him an intimidating pm, so he says, having identified him. Not that it matters but they like to frighten people.

Be aware of the scam involved in these fake PCNs, and how to defend if they try a small claim. I seem to recall that, if PP file their own claim (not using Gladstones) they use Salford, not Northampton MCOL, so when the claim is received you have to read the paperwork to see how to acknowledge it, as MCOL is not in play.

Be careful what you post here - no saying who was driving.

it relates to a parking offence back in May 2018. When i asked why she didnt let me know about this, apparently it was standard practice at her last post to file them in a draw and forget about them as "they never amount to anything" apparently.
I'm a little dubious about this, hence my presence on your forum.

You are right. Things have changed in recent years. The industry is out of control.

Tell her the policy has changed and that all fake PCNs will be appealed in future, in the name of the company (see Edna Basher's ABC company appeals linked in the company car section of the NEWBIES thread).

LOTS of these horrible firms now sue. Better to nip these in the bud at POPLA like Edna Basher does. He might reply by pm if you message him for tips.