UKPC - pursuing for recompense

Hi all,

I am looking for some help with a specific matter - namely whether anyone has had any experience with taking a Private Parking Company to the County Court via the Small Claims Track to recover reasonable recompense for time and effort in dealing with and defending a claim brought by them, that I believe to be demonstrably specious and vexatious.

The details are as follows:

On the 16th of September 2017 my wife and I had cause to visit a shopping precinct that offers two hours of free parking (the precinct consists of a number of well-known retailers). Whilst we were shopping at more than one of said retailers, an operative of UK Parking Control Ltd issued a charge notice for the stated reason "driver/owner left site". The charge notice states the time the vehicle is first "seen" and the time that the charge notice is issued, a period that covers a total of approximately 9 minutes. We have receipts that prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that we were indeed shopping in multiple retailers at that location and could not feasibly have left the site, and certainly could not have done so between the vehicle first being observed and the issuance of the ticket.

I sent written representation to UKPC on the 17th of September, stating that I felt the charge notice was invalid and unfair, and furthermore amounted to a speculative invoice that could be shown to be both specious and vexatious. I also requested that UKPC provide evidence of the alleged infraction. This was submitted via the web appeal portal of UKPC, and was acknowledged via an automated e-mail response.

I received a communication from UKPC dated October 20th which requested the details of the driver of the vehicle and clearly stated that should I fail to provide such details within 14 days of the date of that letter that UKPC would reject my representation and at that stage issue a POPLA number.

I responded, again via the web appeal portal of UKPC, stating that I would not be providing the details of the driver and re-iterating the points from my first letter. I also drew their attention to the behaviour of one of their operatives that I had observed at the same parking location the week following the issuance of the charge notice that I had received, whereby I had witnessed the operative issuing a ticket, taking photographs of the ticket ion the windscreen of the vehicle, and then subsequently removing said ticket from the windscreen and placing it under the bonnet flap on the passenger side of the vehicle. Upon being challenged the operative was abusive and threatening and began taking photographs of my wife putting our baby daughter into our vehicle. For good measure I also stated that I intended to submit a claim via the County Court for time spent defending the claim arising via the charge notice on the grounds that the initial claim was evidently and demonstrably illegitimate.

I received no further correspondence from UKPC Ltd, until Friday February 2nd when I received a letter from DRPL requesting payment of £160 within 14 days of the date of the letter, with failure to pay likely to lead to further recovery action and additional costs being incurred. I contacted DRPL by telephone and advised that I had no intention of making payment, and that their "client", UKPC, had not yet issued a final rejection of representation or a POPLA verification number, and that until they had done so I could not progress the matter any further. DRPL tried to make a number of claims and suggested that I could not have a POPLA verification number now and would have to pay or face court action. I advised them to the content of the letter received from UKPC on October 20th (namely that failure to identify the driver within 14 days would result in rejection of representation and issuance of a POPLA verification number) and their client's failure to act accordingly. I also scanned said letter and e-mailed a copy to DRPL, as agreed with the representative I was talking to on the telephone.

Now, research on this forum suggests that UKPC are prone to working practices that might be described as dubious at best, and that DRPL are nothing more than a "no win, no fee" operation that Private Parking Companies send desperate cases.

They have, frankly, annoyed me.

I now intend to file a claim in the County Court, but wonder if anyone else has any experience of heading down this track?

Also, anyone had any experience with pursuing under breach of the DPA 1998 or Protection from Harassment Act 1997?

Thanks