Brittania PCN and BW Legal

pcnhater · 17 December 2018 at 1:16PM

Hello Everyone,

I am another victim of these parking scammers. I have received a letter from Brittania Parking and BW Legal that I have failed to pay for PCN so need to pay £85 + £60 legal fees and they have given me 16 days to respond. They did not give any forms to complete. This is about PCN they issued years ago. These 16 days have now elapsed.

I am thinking of offering them £40 and close this case as don;t have much time to go through all the process. However, if they don;t accept it then i am willing to go all the way to the court.

Can anyone please suggest me if offering them £40 in anyway will count against me if it goes to the court and also if anyone has any letter templates I can use?

Many Thanks

fisherjim · 17 December 2018 at 2:14PM

Don't waste your time £40 won't be of any interest to them except to confirm they have hooked a mug sorry!

The £60 they have added on is nothing to do with legal fees, they have incurred no fees of this kind just another scam they have hidden in their arsenal of lies to frighten you.

BW legal are acting as debt collectors, and can be ignored.

How long ago is "years ago"?

They have six years in which to hold this alleged debt on file and then it times out, don't ignore real court papers though.

Have you read the newbies thread yet on page one which explains this whole sorry business?

pcnhater · 17 December 2018 at 5:21PM

Thanks fisherjim.

PCN was issued around 2.5years ago. I have read through the beginner section but there is a lot of information there and i am kind of lost what action to take next. I think i need to send SAR first. Right?

Appreciate your help.

KeithP · 17 December 2018 at 5:27PM

As FisherJim says, that's a debt collectors letter.

Post #4 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread describes exactly how to deal with debt collectors letters.

Redx · 17 December 2018 at 5:34PM

by all means send a SAR to get all they have on you, but bear in mind that 6 year deadline so 2.5 years is not even halfway

pcnhater · 20 December 2018 at 11:00PM

I have received Letter of claim giving me 30 days to respond. It also have some forms to fill in whether i deny or agree to the claim along Income and expense form.

I have sent SAR to Britannia Parking and have also informed bw legal about it.

Do I need to do anything more at this stage?

pcnhater · 21 January 2019 at 9:56AM

I have received a response back from Brittania which I have posted below. I have checked other posts with similar response but in all those posts, they also received information they requested in SAR. however, I have not received any information from them. The deadline of 1 month to process has now passed

Can someone please guide me what response to send back to them.

Dear Sir/Madam,
We have received your Subject Access Request, under ICO guidelines we have one calendar month to respond.
Please be aware we will send a copy of all personal data we hold only. If you have made a request for any additional information which does not qualify as personal data, please see below.
YOU’RE REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Landowner agreement - You are not entitled to business sensitive information, it will only be supplied at court, as evidence and not before.

Contract with the driver - The contract is on the signage in the car park. A copy of the signage will be provided as evidence at court.

Machine reports - You are not entitled to transactions which do not relate to you, you will be provided with your transaction only. We are under no obligation to provide you with anything further.

Picture packs - A copy of the signage will be provided as evidence at court.

Your SAR request is free, however please be aware we are able to charge for additional copies and any requests for information we consider to be manifestly unfounded or excessive. ICO guidelines advise we are able to charge a reasonable administration fee, which is £10.
Please send a cheque payable to Britannia Parking to the following address: Data Protection Officer, County Gates House, 7th Floor, 300 Poole Road, Poole, BH12 1AZ.
Include a list of the additional information you require and the PCN number/s. Once the cheque has cleared we will action your request. We will only send additional information which is not business sensitive.
Please refer to the ICO website for further information:
If you do not wish to pay £10, we are under no obligation to provide you with the information, your only options is to wait until this matter progresses to court, when it will be adduced as evidence.
Once you are in receipt of your SAR, all additional correspondence regarding the request for additional information will not be responded to, unless payment of £10 is received.

The_Deep · 21 January 2019 at 10:02AM

These 16 days have now elapsed.

What you have there is a begging letter from a debt collector, it is not a letter before claim from a solicitor as a genuine LBC must contain forms, and allow 30 days to pay.

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers, (very often former clampers), be put out of business.

Hopefully that will take place in the near future. The Bill has passed through the HOC without hitch, and goes to the Lords soon. In the meantime involve your MP, the poor dears are buckling under the weight of complaints about these scammers.

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors. Is has been suggested by an MP that some of these companies may have connections to organised crime.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, (especially Smart}, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week), hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers.

Sir Greg Knight's Private Members Bill to curb the excesses, and perhaps close down, some of these companies passed its Third Reading in late November, and, with a fair wind, will become Law next year.

All three readings are available to watch on the internet, (some 6-7 hours), and published in Hansard. MPs have an extremely low opinion of the industry. Many are complaining that they are becoming overwhelmed by complaints from members of the public. Add to their burden, complain in the most robust terms about the scammers.

pcnhater · 21 January 2019 at 10:39AM

@the Deep - I received LBC from BW Legal with 30 days to pay and few forms to fill in. I think these 30 days are close to expiring. I am thinking of sending rebuttal. What will you suggest to do next?

The_Deep · 21 January 2019 at 10:51AM

Please read the stickies/FAQS. All is revealed therein.i

Coupon-mad · 21 January 2019 at 1:06PM

If you do not wish to pay £10, we are under no obligation to provide you with the information, your only options is to wait until this matter progresses to court, when it will be adduced as evidence.

You need to report them to the ICO online, NOW.

They are refusing even to give you the basic data like photos, and telling you they'll give it to you as evidence nearer a court hearing. They are not allowed to withhold this data, and where is the VRN machine list? It's unclear, but they then say:

''if you do not wish to pay £10, we are under no obligation to provide you with the information, your only options is to wait until this matter progresses to court''.

The letter is also highly misleading as it seems on first reading, to ask for £10 for the SAR, so I bet people will be sending that, when in fact that's for further copies.

Brittania PCN and BW Legal

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