Dishonest parking charge UPKC

The_Deep wrote: »

Never phone a scammer, judges need paper trails.

DVLA won't like you calling them that!!

Don't panic about this.

But you need to understand the modus operandi of companies like this one.

They will hound you for payment, sending letters talking about CCJs and how your credit will be destroyed. Remember that phone call you got saying "we're passing this to the solicitor now"? They heard the panic in your voice and they are trying to bully and scare you into paying. Block their number now to avoid them calling you again.

Even where you have a good defence, they just keep going. They hope that you will get scared and give up and pay. Most will eventually issue a court claim against you. They hope that at that stage your panic levels will increase and you will pay up (many people do). They have 6 years within which to do this. If you move in the meantime, they make no effort to establish if your address is up to date and often people have these court claims go to default judgment without even knowing. So now you know, keep updating your address to them and keep the evidence you've done so. Also set up postal redirect and keep evidence you did so.

Some parking companies hound you all the way, but stop short of going to court. You can look up how often your PPC goes to court by looking them up on the BMPA website.

If you get a court claim, you have a good defence, and we will all help you through it.

To focus your mind, do a bit of evidence gathering now, and when you get the next letter write to them to tell them why you say the charge is invalid. They will ignore you. When (if) you eventually get a claim then your defence will be what's in the letter.


Your detective work to be done now:
Try to work out if you went to the car park on two days running and roughly when that might have been.
If you have an iPhone unless the feature is turned off, google maps tracks your movements. I'm not a techie so not sure how to find that information, but others on here know.
Other options for showing where you were: you may have been at work with your car (get HR or your boss to confirm you were), you may have been visiting a friend or relative (have you got any texts or emails which would confirm this? At worst get a letter from them confirming you were visiting). You say you took your mum to the airport (don't worry about CCTV, you probably have texts to/from your mum - eg "are you on your way son/daughter, my flight leaves at x", "I'll be there in 5 minutes mum, just leaving now" - and your mum will have confirmation of her flight - gather all of that together now).


If you did go there twice, this is what we call double dipping, where the cameras record you arriving on the first visit and leaving on the second, which leads to the assumption that your car remained there throughout. You must tell them this is what has happened, provide some evidence of where you were (with your car) and tell them to check their records which will show you leaving and then returning the following day.


If you have evidence you think shows their photos are doctored, then tell them and why you believe this.


The letter will go something like this:


Dear Sirs


I refer to parking charge xxxxx.


There is no charge due from me to you. Please instruct your debt collection agents to stop contacting me and remove my data from your system and cease processing it. If you ignore this, you will be in breach of the Data Protection Act, which is a serious matter.


The reason there is no charge due is because I did not overstay at the carpark, although I accept that I did visit it on x date [and if you went on the second day] and on y date, between the following times:
x date: arrived at about x, left at about x
y date: arrived at about x, left at about x


Either your ANPR system has incorrectly functioned (for which ANPR systems are notorious) and has not registered my car leaving on x date and arriving on y date, or you have failed to read and assess its data properly.


I can produce evidence that I was elsewhere and with my car between x o'clock on x date and x o'clock on y date, when you claim my car was parked in the car park. This is in the form of:
- Google maps data showing where I was on the two days in question
- Text messages/emails passing between me and my mother which show that on y date (when you claim my car was in the car park) I was driving my mother from her home in xxx to xxx airport to catch a flight which left at [time].
- confirmation from my employers that I was at work between x and y on the dates in question (I commute to work in my car)
- anything else you have to show you were elsewhere, eg bank statement entries of you spending money elsewhere.


I am not going to pay this trumped up charge. If you believe you have a claim, then do not spend months and years writing me threatening letters, I invite you to just go ahead and issue a claim so that I can defend it.


If you do continue to write to me, either yourselves or via agents or solicitors, then this will be harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act and it will be a breach of my rights under the Data Protection Act. Please be under no illusion that if you continue to pursue me then I reserve all my rights under this legislation to make a claim against you for damages and injunctive relief.




Yours faithfully