GCTT and ZZPS Letters- England

liverpoolireland

Hi, I am very new to this so please bare with me. 

I’m 2020 I entered a carpark by my university and the pay machine was broken. I had no mobile data on my phone so couldn’t download the app to pay for my parking. I got back into the car and left and parked elsewhere. I got a letter through from Parking eye to say I stayed 4 minutes and didn’t pay. So I appealed it with photos of the broken pay machine and it got rejected.
fastforward 3 years I have received multiple scary letters from ZZPS and today one from GCTT. 

However the thing is, the letters are being sent to my old address in Ireland which I no longer reside so I’ve only recently been told by the new owners about these letters. As you can imagine I am a young girl and these letters sound scary. 

I don’t have a spare £170 nor the time to be fighting with these people as I am in my final year of studies.
can someone please advise, and be kind I am clueless with all of this.
thank you I’m advance 

liverpoolireland

Examples of the letters 

Fruitcake

Powerless debt collectors can safely be ignored anywhere and everywhere in the UK.

It is believed that PE generally only use debt collectors when they know they cannot bring a court claim.

If the vehicle was registered to an address in NI at the time of the alleged event then you have nothing to worry about.

B789

ZZPS and GCTT... just bottom-dwelling debt recovery companies that have no authority or power to do anything to you. If you read the Newbies thread on this forum, you will find out that you can safely ignore those letters. Just file them and one day you may be able to use them as kindling.

You don't owe them or their scamming client, ParkingEye anything. PE is alleging you have an outstanding debt based on a speculative invoice they issued (PCN) all those years ago. For the time being, you should wait for a Letter of Claim or a Letter Before County Court Claim. PE can issue a claim up to 6 years after the event.

What would be useful to know in order to assist you is when did you move to the UK from Ireland? Presumably, after 24/09/2020. Was your car registered to your Irish address?

The legal experts will advise on whether you should inform PE of your new address. As far as I am aware, they can do nothing if your address for service is in Ireland and they will just crawl back under their rock if they don't get a response as they have no jurisdiction to file a claim in an Irish court. I suspect they are just trying to scare you not paying them as part of their scam.

Castle

B789 said:

ZZPS and GCTT... just bottom-dwelling debt recovery companies that have no authority or power to do anything to you. If you read the Newbies thread on this forum, you will find out that you can safely ignore those letters. Just file them and one day you may be able to use them as kindling.

They are actually the same company.

liverpoolireland

B789 said:

ZZPS and GCTT... just bottom-dwelling debt recovery companies that have no authority or power to do anything to you. If you read the Newbies thread on this forum, you will find out that you can safely ignore those letters. Just file them and one day you may be able to use them as kindling.

You don't owe them or their scamming client, ParkingEye anything. PE is alleging you have an outstanding debt based on a speculative invoice they issued (PCN) all those years ago. For the time being, you should wait for a Letter of Claim or a Letter Before County Court Claim. PE can issue a claim up to 6 years after the event.

What would be useful to know in order to assist you is when did you move to the UK from Ireland? Presumably, after 24/09/2020. Was your car registered to your Irish address?

The legal experts will advise on whether you should inform PE of your new address. As far as I am aware, they can do nothing if your address for service is in Ireland and they will just crawl back under their rock if they don't get a response as they have no jurisdiction to file a claim in an Irish court. I suspect they are just trying to scare you not paying them as part of their scam.

Hi, thank you so much for your kind and useful advice! 

Yes I moved 2 days prior (22/09/2020) . At the time of the ‘fine’ my car was still registered in Ireland and was officially changed over to my UK address around a month after. 

B789

As a matter of interest, is your car UK reg or Irish reg?

Still waiting for some better legal advice from the experts, but normally, we would advise victims to contact the PPC and give them an up-to-date address for any service. In this case, they only have a foreign address which is of no real use to them as they cannot make a claim for this alleged debt in Ireland.

Are you now residing in England and if so, are on the electoral roll and do you have a UK bank account/credit card, utility accounts in your current UK address? If so, then it would make sense to get your details updated with the PPC. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a dilemma as some if not most PPCs don't bother to do a soft trace before issuing claims.

A soft trace, assuming you are now residing in the UK with a bank account etc, would probably reveal your current address anyway. If the PPC don't bother to do this and just relies on the out-of-date DVLA address in Ireland, then they will just not bother.

The person at the Irish address, is it a family member or someone who you can rely on to keep you up to date with any future mail sent there? If so, it may just be worth seeing if they eventually give up chasing you. If you suddenly get a claim at your UK address, then you just follow the advice as given in the Newbies thread and you will get help and advice here.

Fruitcake

I disagree with the above. If the vehicle was registered to a NI address at the time of the alleged event then PE know they can never bring a case. It doesn't matter where you live now. They can't apply the law of England and Wales so their only option would be to start a case in an NI court, which I suggest is extremely unlikely.
Don't do their job for them.

Ignore it. 

Coupon-mad

Seconded/thirded.  IGNORE IT.  Do not change the address with PE to a UK address!

This is correct:

The legal experts will advise on whether you should inform PE of your new address. As far as I am aware, they can do nothing if your address for service is in Ireland and they will just crawl back under their rock if they don't get a response as they have no jurisdiction to file a claim in an Irish court

liverpoolireland

HI guys - UPDATE 

I’ve now had a letter from QDR Solicitors which looks scary.

please advise further. Shall I still ignore ??

KeithP

What's scary about that?

The fourth post of the NEWBIES thread offers good guidance on how to deal with debt collectors letters.