Car parking scam (UK)

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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:03 pm

OK well I put 'car parking scam' into the site search engine and no discussion about this came out.

If however I am mistaken and there is a thread already running. Sorry, I apologise. Moderator please post a thread and I will be suitably chastised.

If not however, I think that this is worth discussion.

However it is probably only of interest to Brits.

The scam is based entirely on fear and is being pulled by car parking agencies such as Excel Parking or Parking Eye.

They are employed mainly by large supermarket companies to enforce a parking contract.

In (legal) theory a customer parking their car in a space owned by the supermarket, by the act of parking agrees to a contract kept in a draw in a basement someplace. It certainly is not displayed in the car park, nor is there notice that it even exists.

This contract ( if you get to see it) sets out the rules for parking the car.

If the rules are transgressed the car parking agent issues a PCN or Parking Charge Notice.

The victim of the scam may never be approached by any sort of a warden or enforcer, but one or two weeks after the transgression, correspondence will start to appear.

The correspondence will closely resemble a Police or local council parking authority PCN (Using the same acronym) and will have chequered borders.

It will often use pseudo law enforcement bullshit jargon such as 'appeals process' and 'fine'.

The letter is timed to arrive within a short interval, of a threshold where the fine increases by maybe 30%. This is in order to scare you into paying fast.

If you ignore the letters (Which is exactly what you should do), they will become shrill and insistent and will eventually start arriving from debt collection agencies.

The next stage of the scam seldom occurs but the scammer does in fact sometimes go to court and gets a summons issued against you.

It is of course a civil, not a criminal court because they are not a legal authority therefore you cannot have committed any crime or misdemeanour. The scammer's whole intention is to make it appear as if you have, and that they are the legal parking authority imposing a fine as punishment.

It is all bullshit.

The true state of affairs is that the parking agency company is trying to convince the court that you have agreed to a contract in which you will park in a certain way for a certain time. Also that you have knowingly broken this contract.

At the same time, in a double blinder they are trying to convince you that they are the police or local parking authority and that you are “nicked my lad.”

Excellent advice is available here.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

The scammer, in this case Excel Parking has only turned up to court once.

And they totally bombed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-542355/Judge-quashes-300-parking-fine--set-frighten-intimidate-driver.html

I was a victim of this scam and paid the first demand fine on pain of a 30% increase if I didn't pay within hours of receipt of a deliberately witheld letter.

I then set out on a small campaign to get the money back by strong letters to the supermarket manager.

Anyone in the same position can pm me and I will send you the letters which were successful in recovering the money.

In the meantime if this happens to you DO NOT PAY. Call their bluff after this ruling above these arse holes don't like court rooms. If they threaten you with one, it's an empty threat.

When my bitterness wears down and I can be more objective about these bastards I will work out a good baiting modality to cost them as much time and money as possible.

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:37 pm

Very interesting case. In terms of getting your own back (legally), this forum might interest you: http://www.b3ta.com/questions/theman/page1/

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:27 pm

Thanks so much for the site. I liked his style. However I think this is not legal

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 10:19 pm

My late father had this happen, though it never went to court, but he got letters from a solicitor.

1) Letter arrives, fine is £100, but reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days. We ignore it.
2) Letter arrives, saying fine is now £100. We ignore it.
3) Letter arrives from debt collection agency. We ignore it and several more from them.
4) Letter arrives from the solicitor, which has the same envelope, and a very similar postcode to the debt collection agency. We ignore that too.

That was the end of it.

Another getout is if you were not driving the car. Apparently, if you say "I was not driving that car, but loaned it to someone else", a court will not force you to say who you loaned it to.This has apparently been tested in court. So the parking people can't take any action, as they have no idea who was driving.

My wife knew of a horrifying story, where a car with a small child was clamped. The car had an oxygen cylinder in it, as the child was very ill. Despite this, the parking lot would not remove the clamp until the release fee was paid. The parent had no way to pay, so some medics and other staff from the hospital clubbed together, and got the car released. These guys really are the pits of the earth.

On another note, this is sort of funny, though it was sad at the time.

My Dad got a car parking fine from the local council. I was advised on uk.legal that they do have powers, unlike those that operate in McDonalds, so it should not be ignored. We objected in writing, saying my Dad needed the loo fast, and enclosing copies of a prescription and the information about the drugs, which came with the drugs, to indicate this this could happen. The council said this was a pre-existing medical condition, and not a medical emergency, so they turned the appeal down.

So I appealed on my Dad's behalf to the independent adjudicator. I was supposed to go to represent my father at 4 pm one afternoon. I was almost certain to lose, but I thought I'd try my luck.

My Dad died about 4 am that morning - less than 12 hours before I was due to defend him. My brother rang the adjudicator, and the hearing was postponed. The adjudicator wrote to the council, suggesting they drop the case, but given them a short time to respond. The council never did, so the case was closed and the fine never paid. Had my father lived 12 hours longer, it was almost certain he would have had to pay.

I was told by the council they were dropping it, after I showed them the death certificate. They said they would drop the case, but refused to put it in writing. But they said if I looked on the web, and put in the parking ticket number, it was have shown nothing was owed. I never bothered, and the council never took any more action.

So although of course I was sad my Dad died, it was ironic he did just in time to save us a few hundred quid.

wasname.

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:11 pm

This is interesting. In the US a business can contract with a private towing service to haul an illegally parked car off of the property, but they cannot impose a "fine." Instead, you must find your own way to the impound lot and pay a hefty fee to get your vehicle released

Maybe some Chicago area baiters can provide an update, but in the 70s and 80s the word was to never even think about parking in any lot in that city, public or private, with a sign stating that Lincoln Towing Service will tow any illegally parked autos. Horror stories about Lincoln Towing abound in the Windy City. The late Steve Goodman even penned a song about them.

I was in Chicago a couple of months ago and noticed Lincoln Towing still operates but I haven't heard if they cleaned up their act.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1066

Ah, yes. Lincoln. I haven't lived in Chicago in a few years but, as far as I know, they are as bad as ever. I remember seeing an expose on them on the local Fox News broadcast. They are notoriously evil.

A friend of mine had his car towed by them. His two dogs were in the back seat! It is highly illegal in the state of Illinois to knowingly tow a car with pets or children in it. Another friend of mine had her car towed by them from her employer's parking lot over her boss's objections. It's also illegal in Illinois to tow a car off of private property without the lproperty owner's consent. They really just don't care about doing things legally and the state's attorney general has shown no interest in stopping their activities.

Hearing all of my friends' horror stories about them made me glad I never owned a car when I was living there.