Sennen Cove top car park fine - half number plate on ticket, dodgy ticket machines?

Mouse007

fisherjim said:

it's either a scam or total incompetence.

It's not incompetence, they knew exactly what they were doing (setting a trap) and were hoping enough would pay without fighting back having returned to home hundreds of miles away. The questions are how much money have they made from this blatant scam? and will they now do the decent thing and refund all those who have paid? I doubt it.

HoneyZog

faborson1964 said:

Amtrac cancelled my pcn when I sent them the pic too, being apologetic and blaming the owner as its not their parking machine!! but they were happy to take the money all along without checking why so many people only input the last 3 digits !! hypocritical 

Got the same email from them. Apparently an "honest mistake" and "not intentional". Mmmmm.

Umkomaas

HoneyZog said:

faborson1964 said:

Amtrac cancelled my pcn when I sent them the pic too, being apologetic and blaming the owner as its not their parking machine!! but they were happy to take the money all along without checking why so many people only input the last 3 digits !! hypocritical 

Got the same email from them. Apparently an "honest mistake" and "not intentional". Mmmmm.

Encourage the sh*t to continue to hit the fan, that might start to show how 'not intentional' their relentless pursuit of other people's money was/is!

Mouse007

HoneyZog said:

Got the same email from them. Apparently an "honest mistake" and "not intentional". Mmmmm.

So how come they have exactly the same setup elsewhere? We know this has been happening down at the harbour car park too.

Coupon-mad

HoneyZog said:

faborson1964 said:

Amtrac cancelled my pcn when I sent them the pic too, being apologetic and blaming the owner as its not their parking machine!! but they were happy to take the money all along without checking why so many people only input the last 3 digits !! hypocritical 

Got the same email from them. Apparently an "honest mistake" and "not intentional". Mmmmm.

Would you mind showing us or me that email please, and your photo again.  I am helping a family member re this (different site but same issue I believe):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79304302#Comment_79304302

I have a first hand account from the driver, who is a friend, that the machine at Rockpool only took 3 digits despite him trying to enter the full VRM.

The pub staff said they knew it was an issue but Armtrac had done nothing about it.  My friend thought as it's a known problem, that all would be OK, so he wasn't expecting the PCN!

Also which email did you complain to? Or was this after an appeal rather than a complaint?

@faborson1964 please can you tell me the Daily Mail journo's email and name? Urgent please!

I'd like to add the Rockpool issue to the piece, to rescue more people in one hit by publicising it and forcing refunds.

I think they've installed a whole batch of machines configured to only accept 3 digits.  Then are sending out PCNs for only keying in 3 digits...

The word 'SCAM' springs to mind. You reading this, Armtrac and IPC?

This will need mass refunds or we all know who I will alert to it.

 

Mouse007

I have now complained to Cornwall Trading Standards about this (edit you now have to go via Citizens Advice here who will report to Trading Standards which you can not do direct anymore)

"KBT Cornwall Ltd (Company number 8087077) trading as Armtrac Security Services have set up private car parking traps across the County. ... "

I think others should do so too, especially if you have been a victim of this scam

It would be great to have this business closed down before my holiday

Edit to add

I have also posted on their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/CornwallTS

Scroll down to their #ScamAware post

faborson1964

I tried to contact a lawyer to get a law suit against them but not sure they are interested.

Mouse007

faborson1964 said:

I tried to contact a lawyer to get a law suit against them but not sure they are interested.

The problem is under what legal basis would you be suing them? And then the eye watering cost of doing so along with the risk of losing and being hit by their costs as well.

Much better to set Trading Standards onto them.

I started the Citizen’s Advice comment box with

"This needs reporting to Trading Standards (I do not need any advice or help, others need protecting)

KBT Cornwall Ltd (Company number 8087077) trading as Armtrac Security Services have set up private car parking traps across Cornwall. ...

... Unless a stop is put to this there could be serious damage to the county's tourism industry this summer."

If more people do this they may do something

Fruitcake

Complaints also need to be made to the DVLA, and then when they whitewash it, further complaints to the ICO. This is a GDPR breach and the journos need to be made aware of it as well, and that a company of solicitors called Keller Lenkner is taking the DVLA to court in a test group action case. 

The ICO had been investigating the DVLA about these data breaches. It took them four years to respond and concluded it wasn't unlawful, but data was being sold for the wrong reason.

I think it is GDPR Article 6 that applies, but this actually says the data must only be released (sold in the DVLA's case) if it is in the public's interest.
The DVLA do no checks other than seeing that the PPC is a member of a parking trade association, and that's it. They don't check that the PPC had reasonable cause to buy the data, they just assume they do have reasonable cause because they have asked for it.
A fairly recent FOI request showed that in some cases the DVLA was selling data to a non ATA member. That's total incompetence. 

fisherjim

I bet Trading Standards will be useless to be honest I suspect they will just tell you to complain to The IPC