Lost POPLA appeal for APCOA Farnham station car park PCN

Gr1pr

Definitely statute barred , penalty cases under bylaws must go to a magistrates court within 6 months from the issue date, so timed out back in February like you stated

Regardless, ignore ZZPS and any other debt collectors

Do not pay a penny

Nothing significant will happen

Coupon-mad

"so if there is some definitive evidence that this is now 'statute barred' we would very much like to see said statute."

That reads like you are doubting us! 🙂

We know our stuff.

I helped the forum team write the Martin Lewis Guide last year. I was invited to assist. It separately mentions Penalty Notices…did you read that bit? They time out after 6 months and CANNOT go to small claims.

When it talks about court it's ONLY talking about parking charge notices. You don't have one of those. Don't be silly, you are being spooked by a scam.

YOU WILL NOT BE PAYING THIS.

Surely (even if she doubts us) the recipient has laughed at that letter, Googled it and found the Magistrates Courts Act?

That sets the time barred period for penalties. 6 months. Clearly this penalty is statute barred!

Please show us the full letter with dates as I want to show this to the MHCLG.

Car1980

Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980

Limitation of time.

(1)Except as otherwise expressly provided by any enactment and subject to subsection (2) below, a magistrates’ court shall not try an information or hear a complaint unless the information was laid, or the complaint made, within 6 months from the time when the offence was committed, or the matter of complaint arose.

You can't automatically stop anybody in the country from sending you threatening letters for an alleged debt I'm afraid, unless you sue them.

Coupon-mad

But you don't pay money just because a scam DRA pretends they can morph a penalty into a debt and sends a daft letter!

James_Poisson

ZZPS are a joke debt collection company that have absolutely nothing in their armoury except a printer with some black and red ink.

Read the wording carefully it doesn't actually say that they will take any action as they can't it's just a load of carefully worded information and threats of Armageddon that won't happen. The debt isn't proven, they don't own it and it cannot be sold on.

APCOA never go to court with parking invoices and they certainly can't with this so called "penalty" they never could and it's time barred anyway.

Stop getting worried by silly letters from greedy bullies.

kryten3000

Please do not pay the scam. At this point there is no debt to pay, unlike banks and credit providers, this industry is unregulated and the Financial Services Act does not apply.

The only way this becomes a real debt is if a judge were to rule against the keeper and make a judgment that the keeper must pay.

This will not happen in this particular case and, even if it did and the keeper lost in court, full payment within 30 days expunges the CCJ.

There is no effect on reputation, credit rating or terms of employment because there is no CCJ.

For "regular" parking charge cases that we deal with here, almost all end up in the defendant's favour.

You are extra fortunate because the window for a prosecution is already closed.

volvo_driver_180

Thanks all for the reassuring comments, we're convinced now!

Here's the full text of the letter.

James_Poisson

What a bunch of stupid scammers!

Coupon-mad

I've redacted the refs.

ZZPS are blatantly gaslighting and IMHO, attempting to extort money from you.

That dark info box threatens that the alleged breach of byelaws is a 'criminal offence' that can be pursued in Magistrates' court…

… but what they fail to say is, it's over 6 months old and therefore that CANNOT happen because it's already statute barred.

Utter scammery at ZZPS' worst. They are appalling and Gary Osner should be ashamed of what he does.