£100 PCN while I sat in my car eating food at Starbucks

i_am_parking_mad

National Parking Enforcement Ltd (IPC, IAS) have asked for £100 claiming "non patron". I was eating lunch in my car while parked at Starbucks, for 25 minutes. No-one knocked on my window, and I didn't have anything attached to it (I would have noticed!)

The notice has two photos of my car, no signage visible whatsoever in either. The letter was sent <=5 days after the event, addressed to the registered keeper. Being my very first "parking ticket", is the best approach to simply ignore all of the letters coming my way?

DoaM

Please read the NEWBIES sticky thread. If you can't see it (or follow it) - please get off your mobile device and use a proper PC. (MSE forums are known to be problematic on mobile devices for some threads).

Coupon-mad

To look reasonable you should send one response, but not saying who was driving.

If this was Starbucks car park then send an appeal that says the driver (not 'I') was a patron of Starbucks and you require all of their photo evidence and notes about the event, that caused a PCN to be issued. Tell them that as well as an appeal they must refer this request to their Data Protection Officer to provide ALL photos & all notes made by the ticketing employee, and all other data and notes/case updates.

And if they fail to provide this evidence you will report them to the ICO.

Attach a copy of your V5C as proof of you being the person whose car this is, who is the 'data subject' for this car.

fisherjim

Why do you expect a scammer trying to make money to warn you?


You obviously don't understand the private parking industry and their quest to trap as many suckers as they can to swell their coffers.


If you didn't go into Starbucks I would imagine some incentivised muppet hid and watched you.


If this was anpr I assume there was a method of registering your vehicle in their building, either way you were caught out.


No the best approach is not to ignore or you may find you are at the end of a court claim.


Start by reading the newbies thread at the top of this forum then come back for more help.


Welcome to the dark side parking!

Half_way

Was/is this site shared with another place, I.e Mc Donalds?

The_Deep

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..

i_am_parking_mad

Thanks all.


> To look reasonable you should send one response, but not saying who was driving.


What's the mantra behind this suggestion? Is it, as I suspect, to have more of a defense in court if it comes to that?


> Was/is this site shared with another place, I.e Mc Donalds?



No, it was next to a place like Mc Donalds but it had its own car park. The only reason I went there was because it was next to the other place, the other place having no free spaces.



There was one thing that I couldn't figure out from the Newbies thread: what is the likely sequence of events from now? Do these companies almost always push it to a letter before action, or do some simply give up long before then?

twhitehousescat

i_am_parking_mad wrote: »

Thanks all.


> To look reasonable you should send one response, but not saying who was driving.


What's the mantra behind this suggestion? Is it, as I suspect, to have more of a defense in court if it comes to that?


> Was/is this site shared with another place, I.e Mc Donalds?



No, it was next to a place like Mc Donalds but it had its own car park. The only reason I went there was because it was next to the other place, the other place having no free spaces.



There was one thing that I couldn't figure out from the Newbies thread: what is the likely sequence of events from now? Do these companies almost always push it to a letter before action, or do some simply give up long before then?

have asked for £100 claiming "non patron". I was eating lunch in my car while parked at Starbucks, for 25 minutes.

The only reason I went there was because it was next to the other place, the other place having no free spaces.

Coupon-mad

Do you mean you put your car in one car park, then actually went to another site?

i_am_parking_mad

I mean, I literally drove with my food into the car park, ate the food, then left.

NeilCr

Did you eat your food in the car park belonging to/attached to the establishment you purchased it from?