UKPC ANPR glitch

Chris8324

Evening all I recently (February) visited McDonald twice in the same day (Dont judge) the first visit was at 4pm to get food for the children post school I then visited again around 7:40 to get food for me and the wife. 

I then received a letter stating that I was in the car park for 4 hours and was receiving a fine 

I obviously contested and explained that I entered twice and exited twice 

looking at the BPA website I can see that ANPR can pair your first entry with your last exit 

UKPC replied saying that they had checked ANPR records and that they were accurate  and they want a receipt for the food purchased

firstly why would they want receipts if they have checked the records and are confident I was there for that period 

my thoughts is that they haven’t checked the records 

unfortunately I paid cash and don’t retain fast food receipts 

also worth mentioning I live 5 minutes from the car park so what reasoning would I have to park there for 4 hours 

any help on how to get these cowboys to leave me alone 

I’ve also found similar news articles with this company doing the same 

Coupon-mad

Do you have Google location enabled on your phone?  That is evidence for POPLA.

Or receipts from going elsewhere in between, getting petrol or something?  Give it some thought. 

Or did you visit somewhere between where there's a ring doorbell (eg. in your street) that picked up your car?

Half_way

There needs to be a thread on here collating all the "double dips"

Anyway, as above do you have any location history on your phone? if not then dont worry.

 Next where was this Mc Donalds?

The line of attack ( or should that be defence) should be on the data protection/GDPR angle:

 Failiure to take reasonable steps to ensure the acuracy of data gathered.

 So for ANPR equipment a reasonable step would be for someone to check if a vehicle  is on site when the system flags up an overstay via a foot patrol.

 THe were question would also point towards how to deal with it, this should be via a complaint to the franchise mentioning that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and this is a data protection/GDPR issue

DullGreyGuy

Chris8324 said:

firstly why would they want receipts if they have checked the records and are confident I was there for that period 

As there is no such thing as the perfect system... there is always chance of mistake and so they are asking for secondary evidence that could disprove their records

Half_way said:

 So for ANPR equipment a reasonable step would be for someone to check if a vehicle  is on site when the system flags up an overstay via a foot patrol.

Parking tickets are not my area of expertise but it doesn't sound reasonable to me for a national company to have to send foot patrols to every site nationwide to confirm each and every overstayer. The largest providers cover thousands of sites and having foot patrols within 15 minutes of each and every sites 24/7 would vastly increase costs.

Coupon-mad

But they (or the landowner client) will have to have someone on foot under the new statutory Code from 2024, because they are in future, required to properly check accessible bays.  Someone will have to, or by specific CCTV in the disabled parking provision area.

Not only to ensure they are not abused but to exempt vehicles with Blue badges to avoid accusing disabled persons of 'overstay', which is and always was illegal.

TBH it would be ideal if PPCs were banned from using ANPR altogether for 'parking management and PCN issue' like Local Authorities are.  Probably never gonna happen but Jeez we need our high streets freed from this outrageous scam.

Coupon-mad

Half_way said:

There needs to be a thread on here collating all the "double dips"

Anyway, as above do you have any location history on your phone? if not then dont worry.

 Next where was this Mc Donalds?

The line of attack ( or should that be defence) should be on the data protection/GDPR angle:

 Failiure to take reasonable steps to ensure the acuracy of data gathered.

 So for ANPR equipment a reasonable step would be for someone to check if a vehicle  is on site when the system flags up an overstay via a foot patrol.

 THe were question would also point towards how to deal with it, this should be via a complaint to the franchise mentioning that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents and this is a data protection/GDPR issue

I agree.  Anyone wanna start diligently collating them?

I think we do need to start a thread about any ANPR failures (double dips and misreads) going forward.

We used to have one but I agree we need a new one to collate 'double dip' records through from 2023 onwards.

It would be a masterstroke to present 3 years of findings to the DLUHC in advance of the first two-yearly Code review (presumably 2026) to try to get interest in a proper crackdown on rogue ANPR use.

Double dips and misreads are so common that (with some, if not all ANPR-using PPCs) it proves no human checks are being done before PCN issue (illegal under the DPA).

Half_way

DullGreyGuy said:

Half_way said:

 So for ANPR equipment a reasonable step would be for someone to check if a vehicle  is on site when the system flags up an overstay via a foot patrol.

Parking tickets are not my area of expertise but it doesn't sound reasonable to me for a national company to have to send foot patrols to every site nationwide to confirm each and every overstayer. The largest providers cover thousands of sites and having foot patrols within 15 minutes of each and every sites 24/7 would vastly increase costs.

Before all this ANPR nonsense it was standard practice to have someone physically checking vehicles on site, the other option would be a barrier controlled car parks either using a token to get out ( genuine customers) or pay on exit

The General Data Protection Regulations puts the onus on the data gathered/controller to put steps in place to ensure the accuracy of data gathered, that is the responsibility of the entity collecting the data.

 If a PPC and/or the landowner can not afford to take steps to ensure the data is correct then the PPC should not be in the  business of gathering and processing personal data

 

Le_Kirk

Here's one I found using the forum search: -
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5550336/double-dip-parking-list-of-cases/p1
Or by searching the posts but it will be a loooong job!

B789

@Chris8324, have you complained to the manager at that branch of McDs? You are obviously a regular, even frequent (by your own admission. Not judging, honestly.) customer and they should get this cancelled, particularly if they want your and your family & friends' custom in future. That is always Plan A.

Maybe, this should also be a wake-up call to the Luddites that refuse to use plastic instead of cash these days, especially if they want an electronic record for future reference as this case shows,

fisherjim

DullGreyGuy said:

As there is no such thing as the perfect system... there is always chance of mistake and so they are asking for secondary evidence that could disprove their records

Parking tickets are not my area of expertise but it doesn't sound reasonable to me for a national company to have to send foot patrols to every site nationwide to confirm each and every overstayer. The largest providers cover thousands of sites and having foot patrols within 15 minutes of each and every sites 24/7 would vastly increase costs.

You certainly are proving that this is not your area of expertise!

If parking companies rake in millions for scamming people then they can afford to do it properly not use a cheap unreliable system that has been shown time and time again to be not fit for purpose!

Local authorities are banned by the government from using ANPR in car parks for this very reason.

High Wycombe council got in to really hot water when it thought it could some years ago and it lost thousands in revenue when was found out and was forced to abandon ANPR it's PPC and return to foot patrols and barriers.

Here's one man's experience:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-11889321/How-one-mans-war-against-private-parking-fine-invalidate-ticket-sent-ANPR-camera.html