SCS Law / UK Parking Control Ltd "Not a Letter of Claim"

ukpcvictim · 3 June 2018 at 2:32AM

Hi all,

My wife has been sent a letter from "SCS Law" on behalf of "UK Parking Control Ltd" regarding a PCN issued to her vehicle at the end of August 2017 (just over 9 months ago!). The letter says to contact "Debt Recovery Plus Ltd" to pay a ridiculous fine / penalty in excess of £150!

I am after some advice from you kind folk as to how we should proceed.

Key points that seem relevant:
1. We have not received any previous correspondence about this matter
2. My wife did not have a ticket (PCN?) attached to her car (she has in the distant past, but always tells me about them).
3. We have quickly appealed all previous tickets to the retailer and had ALL of them immediately cancelled.
4. The alleged offence is listed as "parking in a designated disabled parking space without clearly displaying a valid disability badge / permit"
5. My wife is disabled, and does has a (valid!) blue badge which will have been on the dashboard somewhere while she was parked
6. My wife's vehicle is a motability vehicle which is registered with DVLA as a disabled persons vehicle, and in the VED class of "disabled"
7. We apparently have until 12th June to make full payment!

I have read the key points in the newbies threads, but this seems a little different as we haven't had a ticket on the car, nor any previous correspondence. (I know... every newbie thinks their case is special / different, but seriously... this one seems to be!).

As I have said in my points above, when we have been given tickets at this particular retail park in the past we have immediately complained to the retail park owner and had them cancelled without any fight. This one has now sprung up from nowhere and is already at a point of threatening court action etc !

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't really need the stress / hassle of this at the moment! At the same time, I don't plan on paying a ridiculous fee because my wife decided to park, legally, in a free car park!

Umkomaas · 3 June 2018 at 10:46AM

1. We have not received any previous correspondence about this matter Not unheard of, in fact fairly common
2. My wife did not have a ticket (PCN?) attached to her car (she has in the distant past, but always tells me about them). As above
3. We have quickly appealed all previous tickets to the retailer and had ALL of them immediately cancelled. What did they say this time?
4. The alleged offence is listed as "parking in a designated disabled parking space without clearly displaying a valid disability badge / permit" Have a look on UKPC's website to check if they have photos
5. My wife is disabled, and does has a (valid!) blue badge which will have been on the dashboard somewhere while she was parked Photos should either show the badge, or not (check angles they've taken the shots as sometimes they use things like windscreen pillars to 'hide' the badge)
6. My wife's vehicle is a motability vehicle which is registered with DVLA as a disabled persons vehicle, and in the VED class of "disabled" PPCs don't care, a disabled person's money is equally as good as that of an able-bodied person
7. We apparently have until 12th June to make full payment! says who? DRP? :rotfl:

If you haven't complained to the retailer, take the blue badge (watch where you park if you remove from the vehicle to do this) and any receipts, cc or bank statements showing purchases for the day (or back copies showing regular patronage) and ask them to get this cancelled. Under the Equality Act 2010 your wife has every right to park in those spots (the EA doesn't demand a blue badge). Remind the retailer that they have a responsibility to provide 'reasonable adjustments' for your wife under the Act (and they are liable for the actions of their agent too in this regard). Tell them that if they don't sort this out, you (your wife) will be issuing a claim against the retailer under the Act for distress and harassment where, by law, the minimum recompense is £500.

fisherjim · 3 June 2018 at 11:53AM

Also you do not have a "fine" or "penalty" the fact that they are telling you to pay DRP means this is a debt recovery in the guise of a Solicitors letter, a common scam they get up to.

These are proven scammers I would not put it past them to go directly to this stage knowing you had every right to be parked there and that they should cancel when challenged, but go directly to this stage on purpose.

The_Deep · 3 June 2018 at 11:57AM

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and another company have already been named and shamed, as has Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each year). They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

Hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned.

The problem has become so rampant that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. Watch the video of the Second Reading in the HofC recently.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by Christmas.

Redx · 3 June 2018 at 1:24PM

use the SAR under the new GDPR rules to get all the info from UKPC direct , see the GDPR thread by coupon mad on here for details

ie:- use the law to get all the information and photos held by UKPC using a free SAR request , even if you do it in her name (remember , it must be the person receiving thge letters who signs this and does this, even if you are doing it all on her behalf , using her email details etc- if necessary setup a free gmail email account in her name, just for dealing with this)

and follow the advice above too

ukpcvictim · 3 June 2018 at 7:04PM

Thank you all for your replies. I am already feeling more confident about all of this

they really are a bunch of scummy <expletives>!!

I will go through the comments above and reply accordingly later this evening. Your help is very welcome and greatly appreciated.

ukpcvictim · 4 June 2018 at 1:33AM

@Umkomaas
We haven't challenged them yet as we weren't even sure they would be able to cancel it as it is already with "debt collectors". We will go and see what they say in the next couple of days.

With regard to photos, they haven't included the original reference number which, according to the UKPC website, should be a 10-digit number. The only reference number we have been given is a 7-digit number! Presumably, if they don't immediately have the issue cancelled, we should demand to see photos as proof before doing anything else?

The point about my wife being disabled was more aimed at the fact that the vehicle is registered as a disabled vehicle with the DVLA. I would have expected (apparently naively!) them to look up each vehicle before issuing a ticket, to avoid these sorts of comebacks. Surely this could easily be done with a portable handheld device used by each ticket issuing monkey they employ?

The "deadline" of 12th June is mentioned in the letter, so I guess that is from DRP?

When we go and pay them a visit, I will certainly mention the Equality Act (which I am about to Google and have a read up on). Hopefully this will make them get it all cancelled off nice and swiftly, and that can be the end of it!

@TheDeep
Thank you for the link to the parliament video. As soon as I started watching it I noticed my local MP sat right in front of the MP doing most of the talking, and he also gave his own little speech later in the video, mentioning "honey pot" car parks. I am 99.9% certain that he is describing the car park where my wife was allegedly ticketed, so I will be going to visit him as soon as I am able as I get the impression he will dive all over this!!
It was interesting to note that UK Parking Control Ltd was mentioned specifically as a group of scammers lol. I feel it really says something about your company when the countries MPs are naming and shaming you during their official sessions in parliament!

@Redx
I will request photographic evidence etc if they decide not to drop it once I have visited the retail park in question. Using the new GDPR rules is something I hadn't thought of, but I will certainly look into that further if I have to go that route!

@everyone
Thanks again for all your advice. I will keep the thread updated on how this proceeds and may request further help if required.

Coupon-mad · 4 June 2018 at 1:43AM

use the SAR under the new GDPR rules to get all the info from UKPC direct , see the GDPR thread by coupon mad on here for details

Using the new GDPR rules is something I hadn't thought of, but I will certainly look into that further if I have to go that route!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5849784

ukpcvictim · 4 June 2018 at 2:48AM

As a brief note, could someone add "SAR" to the list of acronyms in the newbie thread

I had to Google that one!

And yes, this sounds like a cracking idea

I will send a SAR in my wife's name tomorrow. Will be interesting to see if they provide the information at all, let alone in time!

Umkomaas · 4 June 2018 at 9:10AM

With regard to photos, they haven't included the original reference number which, according to the UKPC website, should be a 10-digit number. The only reference number we have been given is a 7-digit number! Presumably, if they don't immediately have the issue cancelled, we should demand to see photos as proof before doing anything else?

A 10-digit code usually relates to your access code to POPLA (that ship has long sailed), so the 7-digit Code might well be your PCN reference. Try it.

The point about my wife being disabled was more aimed at the fact that the vehicle is registered as a disabled vehicle with the DVLA. I would have expected (apparently naively!) them to look up each vehicle before issuing a ticket, to avoid these sorts of comebacks. Surely this could easily be done with a portable handheld device used by each ticket issuing monkey they employ?

What, and miss the opportunity to make some money? Even if 9 out of 10 similarly scammed disabled people ignore them/get their PCN cancelled, they will have still collected £100.

I can see your eyes slowly widening!

Le_Kirk · 4 June 2018 at 9:51AM

ukpcvictim wrote: »

As a brief note, could someone add "SAR" to the list of acronyms in the newbie thread I had to Google that one!

It's Coupon-Mad's thread and I am sure she will update it when she reads this.

SCS Law / UK Parking Control Ltd "Not a Letter of Claim"

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