Britannia Parking - DEX MSCP Newcastle BW Legal

parkingmeter · 11 January 2019 at 6:22PM

Hi, I recently received an LBC from BW Legal about a parking ticket in August.
I read the newbie thread and found out this car park is notorious for PCNs, there was no parking attendant in the booth and i couldn't find the parking meter at night.

I requested via email an SAR to which I received these replies:

Britannia Parking:
Dear...,

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.

I then received this email...
Dear ..,
Can you please confirm the PCN number, Vehicle registration and your address at the time of the contravention, so I can search our system.
Currently the only information I have to go by is your surname and the returned results are too large to narrow it down without the extra information.
Please be aware the one calendar month period to responding to your SAR begins when we receive the additional information.

I then received a letter from BW Legal stating they will not suspend my account activities in accordance to the SAR.

I am looking for advice on what the next steps are to take as i have not replied to any of their correspondance as of yet.

Thanks

Redx · 11 January 2019 at 6:35PM

there is no charge for a SAR since may 2018 , so they are wrong there, so I hope you emailed their DPO direct and not some catch all email ?

their DPO can ask for certain data, so give them your name , address , VRM details , pcn ref and any B W LEGAL ref , plus confirm they can use an authorised email address for replies etc (this can be the one you used or one setup by gmail for this specific purpose)- so give them authorisation to use said email

take a pic or scan of the V5C and add it to the SAR request email , by attachment

if your address etc were different at the time of the incident, give them those details too

the idea is to give them enough info to process the free SAR, but not phone numbers or shoe size or maiden name etc

they are only required to give you YOUR data, not pics of signage or landowner details etc

the LBC REBUTTAL to B W LEGAL can ask for that other info under the PaP nov 2017 rules , so do not confuse the 2 legal parameters

beamerguy · 11 January 2019 at 6:36PM

Second one like this we have seen today ???

information we consider to be manifestly unfounded or excessive. ICO guidelines advise we are able to charge a reasonable administration fee, which is £10.

This seems to be a new wheeze by Britannia.

"manifestly unfounded or excessive."

One could politely say ... What a load of rubbish"

Complain to the ICO as they are knowingly obstructing you for a reward

As far as BWLegal is concerned and the LBC. How can you respond when their client is being obstructive and if the information requested is not received and it goes to court, you will advise the court of the same and request the case is dismissed

The_Deep · 11 January 2019 at 7:15PM

Take the matter up with your MP.

It is the will of Parliament that these scammers 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.

Coupon-mad · 12 January 2019 at 3:28AM

Like I posted on the other thread, this is NOT refusing the SAR and nor is is trying to charge £10 for the personal data...

It is simply that the OP has not used the recommended SAR template from Legal Beagles (NEWBIES thread gives the link) and has asked for too much.

Of course they *could* charge for that because anything above personal data is excessive.

Parkingticket · 12 January 2019 at 10:34AM

I am in the same position - have ignored all letters thus far and have received a bcn from bw legal and therefore requested sar as per legal beagles on the newbies thread and have had the same letter back from bw legal stating they require a £10 admin fee and once received will process my request.
My question is do i pay the £10 or wait until i recieve a court date and THEN pay the admin fee to gain sar info?
Really appreciate any advice. Also do i start a new thread now or wait until i get a court date?

Fruitcake · 12 January 2019 at 11:02AM

The ICO has said that charging for an SAR is only acceptable where a lot of work will be required such as multiple emails/documents need to be checked, or over a long period of several years.

Asking for data relating to a simple parking charge does not fall under this remit.

Britannia should therefore be reported to the ICO for every instance where they have asked for the motorist to pay £10 to get their data.

I'll try and dig out my notes about this.

beamerguy · 12 January 2019 at 11:21AM

Parkingticket wrote: »

I am in the same position - have ignored all letters thus far and have received a bcn from bw legal and therefore requested sar as per legal beagles on the newbies thread and have had the same letter back from bw legal stating they require a £10 admin fee and once received will process my request.
My question is do i pay the £10 or wait until i recieve a court date and THEN pay the admin fee to gain sar info?
Really appreciate any advice. Also do i start a new thread now or wait until i get a court date?

Have you asked for the information more than once ??

A SAR is a legal method to obtain information regarding the claim they make but not providing full information.
I imagine the £10 charge is the brain wave of BWLegal passed on to the parking companes.
Is the SAR excessive ? Only the ICO can determine that.

It is my view that this £10 is firstly designed as a deterrent and knowingly being obstructive to profit for gain

Using bullet points please list what you asked for in your SAR

Fruitcake · 12 January 2019 at 11:40AM

DSFP started this £10 wheeze for the car park they mismanage in Instow, Devon. The local Fakebook fightback group complained to the ICO who said it was unreasonable. I'm waiting for a message back from the fightback Supreme Being, who has also had wins against PE at PoPLA and ES Parking Solutions in in Court, about the exact words the ICO used.

The Instow scammer is no longer asking for the £10 charge, and has been reprimanded for using the ICO logo on his accredited page.

Parkingticket, you need to start your own thread as soon as you need to ask questions on the forum.

Coupon-mad · 12 January 2019 at 1:51PM

Can we stop threads about this non-issue, it seems to me?

Britannia do not need reporting to the ICO for wanting to charge £10 for people who ask for more than just their data.

People should not be asking for a whole list of rubbish that doesn't fall under the GDPR. It would be unacceptable if Britannia was trying to charge £10 for a SAR, but they are not. The 2 threads we've seen are about cases where people have asked for a whole list of stuff, or repeated a SAR request already supplied.

It's why the NEWBIES thread suggests people use the Legal Beagles SAR template.

beamerguy · 12 January 2019 at 2:13PM

C-m ....... we need to know what the ICO find acceptable for a SAR
otherwise this lot will make £10 a standard charge simply by saying it's "excessive"
Let's face it, they are not liking being sent a SAR

Hopefully, fruitcake above will get an answer for us.

In the meanwhile people should continue sending reasonable SAR requests and lets see if there is a pattern building

Britannia Parking - DEX MSCP Newcastle BW Legal

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