DCBL Ltd

Gengis

Hi 
My wife has received a Letter before Action (March 2022) demanding £170 for a car park fine.  She is a nurse and was working that day so we are not sure if the fine is correct.  They did disclose a dated photo for 3.12.22 - we sent a copy of her diary confirming she was working not in that area.  The only other thing we can think of is attending a child play area and we always enter the reg number in the shop but we cannot be sure it was on 3.12.22.  We did not receive notice to pay the original fine of £60 and we did offer, just to see an end, to pay the £60.  

They keep threatening to issue proceedings and will not disclose the client they work for, previous letters demanding payment of the £60, copy of their client's policy.  To be frank I am very angry about this.

Should we fight this or just pay - concerned if it goes to court we could pay a further sum.

many thanks 

Umkomaas

If the correspondence is from DCB Limited, then just ignore it, they are just powerless debt collectors, can do nothing other than send silly letters. Please read the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, fourth post, for advice on dealing with debt crawlers. 

If DCB Legal are involved then a court claim might be imminent. Don't let that concern you as every court claim they've made which has been defended with assistance from this forum has resulted in a discontinuation long before any anticipated court hearing. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6377263/dcb-legal-record-of-private-parking-court-claim-discontinuations/p1

We did not receive notice to pay the original fine of £60

First off, it's not a 'fine'. It's a speculative invoice. It has no statutory status. One of the reasons people don't receive the original correspondence from the parking firm is that their V5C (logbook) is not showing the current address. It's those logbook details that the DVLA pass on to the parking firms. Please check yours - and update with the DVLA if necessary - it can be done online. If the data remains incorrect, the DVLA can issue a real fine of up to £1,000!

will not disclose the client they work for,

Doesn't their paperwork state who their client is?  Surely it must do, because a debt collector can only operate on behalf of the alleged creditor, they themselves are owed nothing. But, if you're adamant that no parking firm is shown, you can go to the DVLA to find out who has accessed your data by following the below procedure:

You should email the DVLA and ask which organisations (when and for what reason) accessed the registered keeper's data from them between a range of dates which includes the date(s) of the parking incident(s). You need to provide the registered keeper's full name and address, the address on the V5C logbook and the Vehicle Registration Mark of the vehicle involved in the parking incident. 

SubjectAccess.Requests@dvla.gov.uk

This service is free of charge. 

Even though you email your request, the DVLA will respond via Royal Mail.

You won't get an instant response (a couple of weeks maybe), but you've got a quiet time to get that information while you're at the debt collector stage. 

Gengis

Thank you sure it is "Ltd" but will check with the wife tonight.  Thanks for the detailed response.

Coupon-mad

It's not a fine.

it's not 'correct' or OK.

It's not to be paid under any circumstances.

You don't pay more if it goes to court.