ECP via DCB Legal, issue date 10th April 2025

Gmonkey

So POPLA rejected my fine appeal. 

Sadly i admitted driving my car. They had photos of me anyway. 
So this is perhaps a newish scam where you pay for your ticket but the payment to their payment site does not go to them. You are redirected from their payment site and purchase something totally unrelated. In my case a scam subscription to a VPN. Then they claim you didnt pay and you get a fine weeks later. There is of course no helpline or ability to settle the actual car park fee of £4. They move straight to fine. 

A person parks in the car park. (me) The machine is out of order. 

There is no direction of how to pay and you are simply expected to google their payment site. On their site my payment was made and INTERCEPTED by a third party scam hack. Which is not on me …..its on them. I can show payment in good faith via my bank and the website address of their payment system on my phone. I have since changed my bank card details and informed the police of this scam. 

So they then claim no payment and have now changed a £4 fee into a £100 fine. POPLA absurdly rejected my claim. 

The car park provided POPLA with actually fraudulent pictures of notices that are not in the car park. They provided a photo of a sign as evidence of a notice that is not in the car park. 

I informed POPLA of this and they still rejected. 

Im now considering taking this to court because i cant for the life of me see a fair minded judge allow a regular person that paid in good faith get a demand for £100 from a payment that they made in good faith. Can you imagine how easy it would be to scam people if this was allowed to go on. You think you have paid your parking only for you to get a fine weeks later. 

Im a bit daunted by how 'legal' your small claims statements are. I was hoping that i would just explain my case in English and the judge would take it from there. Perhaps naïve. 

Im not going to and dont claim the payment was re-directed by the parking company. I could never prove that. But just imagine if it was !!!!! If it was you would have organised crime. However if it is a genuine situation then why would you want a customer not to be protected? Why would you maliciously go after someone who has clearly been scammed. That is for them to answer hopefully in court. 

Umkomaas

That is for them to answer hopefully in court

Who is 'them' and why do you assume your case will get anywhere near a court?

Coupon-mad

Try a complaint to PPC (not an appeal, a complaint) telling them you will report them to the BPA for (you allege):

- having an insecure website that hacked your data and redirected the payment, and

- falsifying photos of signs that were not there

Gmonkey

Umkomaas said:

That is for them to answer hopefully in court

Who is 'them' and why do you assume your case will get anywhere near a court?

When the parking company get the POPLA appeal verdict that says i must pay then I will refuse to pay until it goes to small claims court. 

Fruitcake

Gmonkey said:

Umkomaas said:

That is for them to answer hopefully in court

Who is 'them' and why do you assume your case will get anywhere near a court?

When the parking company get the POPLA appeal verdict that says i must pay then I will refuse to pay until it goes to small claims court. 

... is the correct answer, but not all PPCs use court as a weapon, hence the question about which PPC issued the invoice.

Plan A is still a complaint to the landowner and your MP.

Gmonkey

Euro Car Parks is the PPC

Gmonkey

i feel it is my duty to take this on because there is no protection for anyone against this. You literally pay them and your payment goes to something else. If no one complains then why would it stop. Its not like you have forgotten to pay or not paid or whatever. I dont think there is any protection against this type of thing for anyone. 

Gmonkey

Also just so people know the redirection was to a VPN service that actually initiated a monthly subscription. It emails you confirmation you have signed up and gives you an opt out option to discontinue. This however is only an opt out for EMAIL CONTACT and NOT an OPT OUT FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION. I had to go to the site and opt out properly. My bank refunded the £7.50 payment and I reported it as a crime to the police.  

Gmonkey

i read the newbe thread. so now POPLA has rejected i just wait out the letter phase and see what happens?? I dont need to do anything?

Umkomaas

Gmonkey said:

Euro Car Parks is the PPC

ECP hardly ever go near a court, but, should you receive a Letter Of/Before Claim from the PPC's solicitors, or a County Court Claim via the Northampton CNBC, come back on this thread. 

Coupon-mad

Gmonkey said:

i read the newbe thread. so now POPLA has rejected i just wait out the letter phase and see what happens?? I dont need to do anything?

So you didn't do what I advised?