Apcoa PCN Meet and Greet scam

Dollydaydream68

Hi,
My daughter booked with a meet and greet company when we parked at Heathrow a few weeks ago. They took my car before the flight and brought it back when we returned. However, I've just received a Notice to Owner PCN for £140 through the post!
It says '01 - Parked in a restricted street during prescribed hours in Sipson Lane, Sipson'.
Can I appeal this? I am the legal owner of the car and none of the statutory grounds for making representations seem to apply in this case. 
Can anyone advise? 
My daughter is mortified that she fell for a scam Park and Ride scheme, where they obviously just dumped my car in a road 😒

TadleyBaggie

Not sure "scam" is the appropriate word, perhaps "cowboy" fits it better. This is the reason I only use the airports official meet and greet operator.

Jame4ters

Is this from a council or from a “parking” company?

Dollydaydream68

Hi, the letter is headed 'London Borough of Hillingdon', but the link to make a representation is www.hillingdonparking.apcoa.co.uk.

We had to park the car in the 'meet and greet' area of the Heathrow car park, and pay for the ticket to park up. They then drove it away somewhere.
At the end of our trip, we then had to pay for another ticket, so they could drive into the car park to drop it off to us! This arrangement wasn't made very clear when we made the booking. 

The whole thing doesn't make sense, as the fine is for the middle of the day, and they didn't come to drop the car to us until after 10pm. They must have been using my car to ferry themselves to and fro the airport. 

I'm assuming that Sipson Lane is the meet and greet carpark? Or have the company parked my car in a totally random street? Surely, that would have been a fine from the council though, rather than Apcoa.

Sorry, this got so long-winded! 

Dollydaydream68

It says it was parked in a restricted street... 

Dollydaydream68

Sorry - I have now managed to upload the photographic evidence. It wasn't in the meet and greet carpark, it's a street with a solid yellow sign and a notice saying you can't park there at certain times of the day.

I've seen that the airport bought up some of the land in Sipson Lane a few years ago, so maybe it belongs to the airport and that's why it isn't the council who sent the PCN? I'm not sure how to find out!
Does anyone know if it is and if I can therefore use the template? 

Jame4ters

Upload a copy of the PCN, personal info redacted, front & back

Coupon-mad

You can't 'upload' here and we don't really have detailed knowledge about council PCNs. But we know someone who does.

Post your pics instead in a new thread on a different forum (not on MSE at all).

Google FTLA forum. Ask our friends there!

James_Poisson

You seem to have been scammed by one of the bogus meet and greet parking companies, who were they and where did you get their details from.

These dodgy companies just take your money and your car is just dumped in a field or on any old piece of land etc etc. 

You are lucky you got the car in one piece, there have been reports of drug dealing, speeding fines, damage to cars, hundreds of miles put on the clock etc., by drivers that possibly have no driving licence or insurance.

In your case the car would seem to have been parked up somewhere, then probably moved on the day ready to be brought to the airport, Sipson Lane is a council controlled highway.

It's nothing to do with the airport, and APCOA in this case are just the back office for the parking fine, though true to form that website comes up as a security risk on my PC.

As C-M says you need to take this to FTLA for advice, we tend to deal with private parking charges, not council penalties.

Neither you or your daughter were in charge of the vehicle when the offence took place, presumably you have proof of the Meet and Greet details and timings, the website is:

https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-(councils-tfl-and-so-on)/