football parking con??

ttaction

Apologies it’s going to start with a little story.
Last Thursday and friend and i attended the cricket at Old Trafford, Manchester.
We got there a little early so decided to park somewhere near to the stadium, for the convenience.
There were several properties advertising ‘Old Trafford parking’ on boards. We picked one, that had spaces available.
When we entered the car park, we were directed where to park one of the attendants, identified by a high-vis jacket. Before we paid the attendant, £10, we asked about the signs and whether the car was safe. We were told that the car would be safe and with the payment we would not be clamped etc, and that they would be there to keep an eye on things.
We enjoyed the game but, on our return, we came back to find no attendant and a Parking Charge Notice on the windscreen. As well as anger and frustration, we were confused. Some of the cars had PCNs and some did not.
It looks like we were the victim of Fraud/Deception by the ‘car parking attendant’, who may have worked for Organised Crime.
Can Spring Parking, who issued the £55 notice, also financially benefit from the deception?
We would not have intentionally parked there and remained there, if we had not been reassured that it was above board.
I believe that this happening each time there was a cricket game at Old Trafford during the World Cup, six times in total, so we are not the only victims. I suspect that, instead of stopping the organised crime gang from using the car park, they continue to let them use it, let them fill it and then swoop down 45 minutes later to issue notices and make a significant amount of revenue.

As you can probably gauge, I’m going to appeal the notice.

Have you heard of anything similar? In my appeal what is the best cause of action, should I focus on one thing or give the full story?

The_Deep

IMO you will lose the appeal. As you say, it is a well known scam and caveat emptor applies. Have you made a complaint to the police?

Yous should also complain to the MP, Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams so complain to your MP. Was the "parking attendant" wearing a logo on his/her jacket.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Quentin

Everyone is asked to read up on this in tghe newbies faq thread nearf the top of the forum before starting a new thread


Go there now to learn about the game you are caught up in and how and when to appeal


Throughout here you are advised not to reveal who was driving


Edit your OP to remove details of who was driving

adam5816

As Quentin said, read up on the Newbies FAQ found here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4816822

First thing to do, as Spring Parking is a BPA approved PPC, copy the blue text appeal from the Newbies FAQ and use this to appeal your PCN in order to get your POPLA code.

It WILL GET REJECTED, don't panic, it will always get rejected as these scammers are only after your money and not your story. With your rejection letter they will give you a POPLA code which you can use to appeal to POPLA which is independent to the PPC and has a slightly higher chance of getting your ticket scrapped.

When you get to the POPLA stage, look through these forums for other cases with your PPC for guidance such as this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5701468 where POPLA decided in his favour. Make sure to get pictures of the horrible signage at the location you parked in to include in your appeal. - Look through the Newbies thread again for points to include in POPLA such as:

• lack of signage
• no landowner authority