Lambeth Parking Services = Bloody Idiots

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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:06 am

The parking services department of Lambeth Council in London are blind idiots. They need to be sacked. The story is simple. I received a penalty charge notice that on a certain date in November last year, at a certain time my car was naughty in a place I never knew existed.

I phoned them up. Right registration number, right person. The car belongs to me. BUT how the hell did my car get up to London? The damn thing has been off the road for 4 years. I thought someone had done a bit of identity theft here.

No. The moron reading the number plate off the photograph had typed in a wrong number. Instead of, say S12 ABC, they had typed in S13 ABC. When I had the oringinal penalty notice sent to me. I phoned them up, we identified the problem. They told me not to worry about it.

Now they send a nice letter threatening to send the bailiffs around to get at least �180 off me. The blithering idiot I talked to this morning wanted me to send them my car documents to prove I owned S13 ABC. What is the bloody point, I own the car. The bloody car they wanted had a different registrion number to my car.

I have got absolutely nothing against the blind or learning disabled. Hell, I regularly give money to charities for those causes. I will go out of my way to help. If I could give them a job, I would. But do Lambeth Council have to employ the registered blind or bloody morons reading registration plates off traffic offence photos.

Bloody twats, if I could send these wankers off on a safari to bloody Darfur, I would pass them on to the Safari Champs. But those idiots would be lucky to find Heathrow airport.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

lol.

Maybe they think you own both number plates, and a trying to con them out of their money.

On a similar note my housemate is going to court today because a speed camera in wales snapped him almost a year ago. He didn't get a fine, or a reminder, but 6 months later he gets a subpoena (is that the right word) to be in a court in wales the next day. He missed that one - he rang them so all is well on that front - and they moved the date to today.

Hope he doesn't lose his licence, i need him to drive me to ASDA and back with all the shopping.

Good luck on slapping the idiots.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:50 am

I'll definately be sending a nice hearty slap because their letter to me will not be abjectly grovelling enough. I was prepared to laugh it off and chalk it up as a fun story to tell down the pub with the first letter and phonecall, but not this time.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

You should be careful though otherwise they might invoke anti-terror powers on you. You'll find a white van parked outside your house for 3 days monitoring your car for a sneaky licence plate change.

I say you try for a pic of a real civil servant with a fish in his mouth and bread on his head.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:48 pm

Wow!

All this trouble because of some knuckle-scraping data entry clerk? I'd let them have it. Mad

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:09 pm

Dionysius wrote:

... Now they send a nice letter threatening to send the bailiffs around to get at least �180 off me. ...

Let them.

They can only lose. Just make sure you appeal every letter they send you in writing. If it goes to court, they'll end up looking really, really stupid and will have to pay the costs. Cool

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 9:29 am

Dionysius wrote:

The blithering idiot I talked to this morning wanted me to send them my car documents to prove I owned S13 ABC.

I wouldn't send them. They have no legal right to ask so can go and get stuffed.

Personally, I love it when stuff like this happens to me. I play them and drive them up the wall. A council whose area I lived in, recently tried to hit me with a bill for unpaid Council Tax dating back 7 years ago. I told them that I didn't owe them a penny, but they weren't having any of it - even though they couldn't tell me what date the money was owed from.
They threatened me with bailiffs and asked me to provide documents to prove that I left their area 7 years ago. I had great fun with the guy on the end of the phone, asking him how I would be able to prove that I moved on the date in question and how I should prove that I didn't owe anything. I also had great fun keeping lots of bailiffs waiting on my doorstep for 30 minutes and then sending them away. They threatened me with court and all sorts of nasty shit, to which my reply was "Bring it on!!!".

This is absolutely true: after a year of this, I actually managed to find an official body which could prove that I didn't owe them any money. In fact, it turned out that the bastards owed me �1700 because they had charged me for a few months after I left (and I paid).

So I got a nice fat cheque (with interest) and was able to call the council guy a "wanker" down the phone. I also took the opportunity to call the bailiffs and thank them for all of their visits and tell them that they weren't needed any more. I do believe that I also called the guy on that particular phone line a "wanker". He didn't like it, but like I told him: "What can you do about it?"

So the moral of the story is, play the bastards for all they're worth. You'll never get an apology but if you can make their little jobsworth lives that little bit more miserable, it's well worth it? And who knows? You might even earn a few quid in the process.

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 8:01 pm

I will definately be pressing them for compensation for 'distress due to negligence'. So we will see what happens.

Adamu's soulmate Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 337

Sadly Lambeth Council has a reputation for mostly employing and electing idiots!
They are only beaten by Westminster City Council when it comes to the awful quality of staff in their parking services...and therein lies my own story.
There is an ombudsman service which I have been told overturns about 50% of parking violations due to the Councils wrong or unsubstantiated evidence.
Good luck

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I got a letter from croydon council when i arrived in uk from ireland when i was 18, saying i owed 3 years poll tax (as it was then) I went down sat down and told them i dont owe them nothing, Firstly im only just 18, secondly ive never lived in the uk until 2 weeks ago. I heard nothing for ages, then got a legal letter saying it was being taken to court for non - payment.

About 4 weeks later i got a letter saying it wasnt been taken to court, very sorry big mix up.

Apparently when i got the solicitor the time they said they would take me, when they tried to list it the court saw the details and wouldnt let them.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:46 am

I'm sure your local newspaper (Evening Standard?) would be interested in your council harassment story and the fact that they are potentially wasting taxpayers money by taking you to court.

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 11:43 pm

Tommo, The strange thing is I live over two hundred miles away. It's a four hour drive by car to get to London. If I was local, it might be understandable - only just.

But there is no way I'm going to give in to these bloody morons.

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:10 am

In my state, parking tickets must have a portion of the vin or vehicle identification number. Its visible on the dash. I put a small piece of electrical tape over the numbers. Makes the ticket invalid. I had a officer tell me that it was illegal to do that. I asked him "do what?"

I have never had a front plate. When I see the first strobe of the camera, I put up my hands up to my face and put up my middle finger. I don't want to get my eyes blinded. After I see the flash, I put my hand down. I have never received a photo ticket in the mail. Laughing

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