Parking Validation

JCopp

Hi there,
I’ve gone through all the newbies thread & and had a long look to find what I need to know but haven’t really pieced together what my problem is so:
Scenario: around Halloween last year went to a small cinema where I live and the car park has a deal that if you’re using the cinema, type your number plate into it and it validates ur parking for free. I’ve used the cinema 5/6 times and done it every time. Anyways I get a letter through from Britannia parking that I owe them £100 for not paying. Rightly or wrongly I appealed it on their website appeal section and had no response to say it wasn’t accepted or whatever then letters kept coming through with threats and I ignored them. They got the infamous BWLegal involved and gave me the same old £60 on top and blah blah blah... they’re now threading tk take me to court if I don’t pay the sum of £236.95.
Can they legally take me to court? Is this company valid to do so or these just empty threats to make me pay? It’s not a parking ticket as i believe it was a camera operated park but I’m not even sure of that because they may have got my number plate from when I typed it in on the tablet.
Could someone pleaseeee talk me through my options and steps because this case seems slightly different to others I’ve seen.

Thankyou

Fruitcake

It looks like you have received a LBC and therefore need to respond to it urgently by following the guide to court written by bargepole from post 2 of the NEWBIES.

What happened when you complained to the cinema manager/CEO?

You should also complain to the BPA and DVLA that you appealed to Britannia but never got a response until being threatened with court by their scamlicitors.
Did you keep proof that you appealed?

The_Deep

Yes they can take you to court and do, thousands of times a year. They will claim that by breaching an alleged contract you inflicted upon them damages which entitle them to be compensated.

However, £240 is far more than the Law allows for this sort of claim. The down market solicitors whom the PPCs engage know this, but, because they are solicitors, know that a lot of people will pay up.

It is in fact double charging and non claimable debt collectors' add ons. Imo, this is fraud, or, at the very least, improper conduct.

Were this to get to court and they won, the judge would be unlikely to award the claimant more than £175 - £200.

I urge you to report this grubby law firm to their regulatory body, the SRA.

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page, and complain to your MP

The whole industry is a scam, relying on threats of court, and the public's ignorance of the Law, A bill is currently before parliament which will regulate the scammers, many of whom are ex-clampers.

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 Second Reading in the Lords this month, and, with a fair wind, will l become Law later this year..

All five readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 7-8 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.

as I am sure they do not condone this conduct.

n It most cervYou seem to be almost totally unaware of the pickle you have got yourself in.