Sanction Points against car park company

mertonman777

Hi all,

I’m currently escalating a formal complaint to the British Parking Association (BPA) against a car park operator following a successful court outcome, and I’m looking to hear from anyone who has experience with the BPA's sanction scheme.

Background:

• An operator issued a County Court claim against me to an old address I vacated years earlier, despite holding a fresh trace result.
• The claim went to a Default Judgment without my knowledge.
• A year later, when it finally went to Court, the Judge set aside and struck out the claim, awarded me costs, and said there had been unreasonable conduct on their part.
• In post-court correspondence, the car park operator has admitted some serious failings in their processes that led to the claim and CCJ against me. These seem to me, to be worthy of sanction points when I've looked closely at the BPA code of practice.

The Current Situation with the BPA:

I have submitted a detailed complaint citing specific breaches of the BPA code of practice.

I also raised a formal recusal request because a senior director of the parking operator sits on the BPA Board. Conflict of interest much! The BPA has acknowledged this and confirmed they will investigate, but I want to ensure it isn't swept under the rug.

My Questions for the Forum:

1. Has anyone here ever successfully forced the BPA to issue sanction points against an operator? What was the tipping point for the compliance team?
2. How does the BPA typically handle conflict-of-interest recusals when an operator’s executive is on the BPA Board?
3. If the BPA attempts to whitewash a clear judicial finding of "unreasonable conduct" and client admissions of skipped tracing etc. what is the best route to escalate further.

Any insights, past experiences, or advice on keeping the pressure on the BPA compliance team would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

James_Poisson

The BPA is like a branch of the Freemasons, you won't get any information out of them, their sanctions records are confidential with just a code number against the sanction:

mertonman777

Yes that's one of my concerns, that they're just there to look out for, and protect their members. So I'm trying hard to make it very clear I'm aware of conflicts of interest and want a fair/independent investigation. Which they have said they will do.

So despite the strong evidence to suggest they should have sanction points against them - up to 10 by my reckoning - I am prepared for them to attempt to protect their member.

But I'm broadly thinking:

A: They surprise me and award them 10 sanction points. Which I hope would cause them problems.

B: If they try and sweep it under the carpet. I will then escalate my dossier (oh yes, I've got one) to the DVLA to see if they will look at it and restrict access to their data.

But again, just interested to see if anybody else has tried to take the fight to these companies and had any insights really.

Thanks for sharing those anonymised sanction point info. That's interesting, I hadn't seen that.

Umkomaas

As much as I hate saying this, you’ll likely be faced by a wall of silence, obfuscation and buck-passing. I hope you can get some degree of satisfaction. PPCs run a protection racket, the BPA (and the IPC) cover them with a protection blanket of their own. Please keep us updated.

Half_way

Yes that's one of my concerns, that they're just there to look out for, and protect their members

Looking after their members is the very thing a trade association is there to do.

The mere fact that the parking industry is carrying on regardless and the DVLA are keeping the registered keeper data tap open and flowing is a clear sign that the BPA and the IPC are doing an excellent job.

Memebrs being the parking companies, and their interest is to make as much money as possible, Codes of practice, sanction points etc are there to give a thin veneer of respectability ( aka lipstick on a pig)

Booting out members is done to protect the majority of companies should a PPC start to draw too much attention to itself and the industry as a whole.

patient_dream

You will not get much from the BPA

Tell us which parking company, we can then work it out

BPA on Companies House shows only 10 are active, the rest resigned

One name stands out being Gary Osner who is debt collector and a director of the BPA. OSNER … AKA ZZPS invented the fake add-on of £70 to claims … he was copied by all the other low life debt collectors, some being run by Osner himself

This is a BPA approved money scam.

The CMA are aware of this scam and the BPA have said they will fully co-operate with the CMA

How the BPA can let a money scammer being a director is beyond belief

The CMA is your next contact regarding the BPA and any director involved

mertonman777

Thanks all for the reality check - I completely share the cynicism regarding trade bodies protecting their paying members. However, because I've got a court order citing unreasonable conduct. And I've got written admissions of skipped tracing from the car park company, I'm interested to see how this plays out.

If the BPA attempts a whitewash, I'll take it to the DVLA data protection/compliance team regarding unlawful data processing.

Will keep you posted on how it goes.

James_Poisson

More power to you, please keep the pressure up, but you will go up against a lot of brick walls believe me, the DVLA are useless when they are at their best, and are like the ATA's covered in lead protection.

daveyjp

The BPA appear to be the equivalent of a Mayfair private members club charging members £1m a year. If you own that club you don't want to be losing that £1m a year by forcing people out, so don't expect much action.