Yeah the compo these bastards need to pay her, I reckon about the cost of a free house, where she lives. Whatever that is, 250 k UK pounds, 500 k UK pounds, whatever. That would sort the bastards out. Assuming they've done this 100 times to other folks, that would probably put the parking company and their liability insurance company, into bankruptcy. Lovely.

And free parking for life 👍🏽

I totally agree with you. So should the landowner for allowing their contractors to behave in such an unacceptable manner.

@@Doshbuzz I like your thinking.

@@bluebottle1617 Good point about the landowners.

the dvla makes quite a bit of income off of those lookups.

It is bizarre isn't it when every other organisation protects your personal data when the DVLA sends your data to anyone? They have even sent my date of birth to a debt collection agency. Of course I don't actually owe the DVLA anything they are just being deliberately awkward. Maybe we need an agency (or a bigger DVLA) that forwards details from these agencies rather than surrender personal data?

Someone needs to try and sue them under gdpr

​@@andywatts8654 yes they do it like the post office thing

I had no idea the DVLA would do that Bent Bastards. Big firms screwing the little people. Have no Trust Anymore. What next Rainbow flags

It's UKParking I've got a court case with them myself. I was in a carpark when you pay on the way out put when I went to pay, the machine was broken. So I filmed the machine and my vehicle just incase. They refused the evidence so I told them to take me to court. I don't think they thought that I'd follow through with it

Good luck, I hope you stuff the robbing twats@@anthony0johnson

Sue them girl they get away with too much you have had this harassment for two years

That would require a change in the law.

This con seems to be a popular rip off.@@anthony0johnson

That is exactly what these companies are

You think?

Hard to believe this highly damaging extortion is still being enabled by government. It amounts to state-level corruption. The firms will be donors to political parties (probably one party in particular) and have very deep pockets (our money..) for lobbying.

This is simply extortion. You are correct. They stopped the clamping companies, they need to stop these parasitical firms from extorting from decent people.

It doesnt "sound like", it it.

This against the Law or are the DVLA are against the Law sue them for thousands grow some balls and sue.

If you or I ask the DVLA for driver details they wont give them. One rule for us and another for them

@@kennethbowry1521 only the greedy lawyers win

GDPR gives you the right to wrote to them and instruct them that any assumed consent is withdrawn and each request for your data must seek your express permission except where RIPA is in force.

OTOH people should be able to bring charges giving just a number plate. The key problem is that the justice system is lethargic.

This is Tory britain and Reform will remove all our rights.

It's the UK !

That is the solution to all this but it requires a government with balls to defy the corporate monsters and stop it, make it a criminal offence for DVLA or any other government department pass personal information to private companies.

DVLA should be stopped from selling drivers’ data to people like these

I believe yes.

No. Any civil case has 6 years to be claimed. It's a game of tennis if the defendant doesn't have clear evidence they paid to park and entered the correct VRN

⁠​⁠​⁠@Ardwick-CromeNearly. Reasonable doubt is criminal law. It's on the balance of probabilities here. But the onus is on the claimant to prove their case, so you're correct about the likely end result.

Vile . How EVIL.

That's usually the case, they take very few cases to court because most of the time they know they won't win. They rely on scaring people, often using illegal tactics like calling their ppc a 'penalty', implying it has the same legal ramifications as a penalty charge from the council. They make enough money from people who don't know about this to justify doing it.

That’s exactly right. She even said “I actually considered paying it to make them stop”. Well, enough people do, probably elderly people, and that incentivises them to consider this business model. There’s actually a lot of service businesses that do this. It’s sickening.

Bottom line, forget the legal jargon, this is yet another case of a cowboy firm running a compony and intimidating it's customers using abhorrent harassment practices. The government should side with the people and close the couscous down, unfortunately the government wasn't their share of the pie in taxes and so will probably do the square root of naff all, thus encouraging these thieves further. The face of Britain today.

​@polina_piter yep. An elderly person got in rhe News saying they finally paid a debt they they shouldn't have paid them.

But is that kind of harassment "legitimate" - or is it the kind of harassment that amounts to a criminal offence? I'm not saying I know the answer, I'm just keen on learning as much as possible.... in this day-and-age of so much corruption and bullying (Post Office scandal, etc).

DVLA though are not involved - Period! These are Private Firms... DVLA are obliged to give ownership details of vehicles on request - That's the whole point of having teh DVLA, so that we can track and monitor who is legally licensed to drive a vehicle and who owns said vehicle... To quote @pbsm4127 "DVLA.. should not be allowed to pass your information to anyone.. 😡😡😡" - If that were the case, and your Car / Vehicle was Stolen... How woudl you recover it? The proof you are teh owner is in the DVLA Database... The Police will need to acess that database to verify you are the vehicles owner... To race it, To find it, to return it. Logically, Your Vehicle could be used in a Serious Crime... And because it is your vehicle, You could be on the hook for committing said crime simply by DENYING anyone the right to access the DVLA Database! DVLA are not the issue... It is these unregulated Private Companies who are the issue... They were alongside Debt Collectors supposed to be being bought under the SIA this year - I have since discovered via my SIA Tutor that this has been "Suspended" and now wont be happening until 2028... A Complaint from Labour Back Benchers means the "white Paper" needs to be reviewed (Not every bad thing is down to Tories - Arseholes though they are... Labour put the kibosh on this one!)

And conspiracy

Yes. It is a serious issue if a Government based outfit releases sensitive information to seemingly any Tom, Dick or Harry that requests it!

By all means explain why

@@Dudleymiddleton They dont though... These Private Parking Firms have to be registered themselves and locations are known to the DVLA, so they have a right to request information. That being said, They are only allowed the Details held on file the owner of a vehicle... Provided they have a Registration. If someone else happens to be driving a vehicle you own.. They cannot ask for that persons identity... Only the Owner of the Registered Vehicle.

Agreed. I’d even go back and sue them for a number is issues. Demanding money with menaces springs to mind.

Yeah the compo these bastards need to pay her, I reckon about the cost of a free house, where she lives. Whatever that is, 250 k UK pounds, 500 k UK pounds, whatever. That would sort the bastards out. Assuming they've done this 100 times to other folks, that would probably put the parking company and their liability insurance company, into bankruptcy. Lovely.

And when the court ruling is made, give them 14 days to pay and apply for a winding up order if they don't comply.

Better ways are available tbh

like she said, sometimes you just want it to stop so you can put it behind you & get on with life, rather than have it drag for another X yrs

Sue them for harassment, alarm and distress they've caused your wife and claim your expenses back too. 6 years is the statute of limitations, so you have time to get justice and hold them to account for their actions...👍🏼

Bit like council tax???

Check out " Gary Waterman the truth will set us free" an ex policeman who has found the fraud, this guy BBB will never review Gary's truths

@@loonaticsrunningtheassylum council tax does go to court though, doesn't it? At least here in Croydon, you get sent a letter with a date for a virtual hearing.

They're definitely trying to pull a fast one based on the shortcomings in their software. Sound familiar to anyone?

Every payment terminal has a unique ref number, so by making such a statement they've put the burden of proof on themselves VS the bank.

OH that doesn't count as harassment because "insert bullshit reason" this dude has covered it before a few times

Sounds like the BBC licensing goons need a "Reception"...

You need to tell them every 12 months. I do so and they don't hassle me.

I`ve not had any yet and I got rid of mine about 6 months ago.

@@bikeman123why would you “need” to tell them every 12 months instead of just telling them if you change your mind. The whole thing is a scam.

Same here. Confront them and they soon poop their panties.

The problem is that the only way to contact them is in writing through the post, even sending a letter recorded delivery they deny ever receiving it. So, regardless of what anyone says on here, barrister or not, DO IGNORE THEM because the moment you make any contact they've got you, I got one such letter from CIVIL ENFORCEMENT ( lol) when I was working in hunstanton last month. Sure enough they have a very grainy photo of "my car" entering the car park at 8.35am and another showing "my car" leaving at 10.49am. However, what they haven't provided me with is the second photo showing "my car"exiting the car park at about 8.37am when I realised that the machine is cash only and I left to drive to Tesco to use the ATM to get some cash to then go into Tesco and buy something so I had change for the ticket machine (A cheese sandwich I think) before returning at about 9.00am, again no photo showing "my car" reentering the car park? To then buy a ticket for 2 hours and then finally leaving said carpark at 10.49am (apparently) the reason why I've put "my car" in exclamation marks is because the photos are such piss poor quality the only thing they do show clearly is my registration number (funny that?) But when I first entered at 8.35am I had a passenger but the photo is so bad you can't see whether there's anyone at all in the car. The last one of these I had was in 2016 in Norwich, they sent me increasingly threatening letters, even fraudulently claiming that some of them were from Northampton county court using a fake logo that to the untrained eye looks like a county court stamp a quick phone call confirmed that Northampton county court had no knowledge of any such case! After a couple of years the letters stopped and at no time did I acknowledge receipt of any correspondence from these crooks. That time I had dropped my wife and daughter off at riverside near the football ground early Saturday morning then picked them up about 4 hours later. Riverside has a 2 hour limit and these fraudsters tried to claim that I had been parked there for 4 hours, I ignored them that time and I'll do the same this time, if necessary I can produce a bank statement proving that I was using the cash point at Tesco when they claim I was in the carpark!

Had she ignored it immediately they would have given up in a few weeks. Saw it before and will see it again. Our local hospital car park has had similar issues. People, namely hospital staff, just ignore the letters and they give up.

Did that with a mobile phone contract, said sure see you in court and by the way I am self employed on a day rate so I'll asking for 2 days money plus hotels etc to attend.

No, completely ignore them from the outset

They don't care about fines. They just close down and re-open under a new name. You need to prosecute the directors.

I had this while working at Hotel on a property lease issue. I was working for the landlord, and the Hotel needed our consent for some work. The ticket was withdrawn when this was pointed out.

Yeah the compo these bastards need to pay her, I reckon about the cost of a free house, where she lives. Whatever that is, 250 k UK pounds, 500 k UK pounds, whatever. That would sort the bastards out. Assuming they've done this 100 times to other folks, that would probably put the parking company and their liability insurance company, into bankruptcy. Lovely.

Yes, she should print and save a copy of the email they sent her. E-mails have a mysterious way of disappearing.

I wonder if these companies are run by former wheel clampers? I know the frustration of not having an appeals phone number to ring.

Happened to me too ! I got a new car, but didn't put my permit for my OWN flat until the next morning. there was a ticket already on the car ! I appealed on their web site and the next thing I get a threatening Bailiffs letter for £150. The email they send after the appeal will go into your email junk, I'm sure they are fully aware of this too! Gmail bins junk after 14 days. They asked for proof of my flat etc, which I didn't send because I didn't see the email. Left me without a leg to stand on, because they had a photo of my car and proof they had sent an email. No choice but to pay up.

Generally a call or email a day is NOT regarded by Courts as harassment.

@@brianlopez8855 for TWO YEARS...?

@@brianlopez8855 In Ferguson v British Gas it was stated that initial demands for payment are reasonable until it's clear the debt is disputed, after that's it's unlawful to press for payment repeatedly except through the courts.

I have an idea who it is, they are pursuing me for having breakfast at McDonald's. I do not expect them to show up either. But it's worse than that, I think they are actually engaging in extortion.

Well, name and shame the company you experienced this with yourself?

Did you actually watch the full video?

@telepath, it was VCS. @Normanross, I did watch the full video and many aspects were very similar, although she was clearly dealing with a different company. The company I dealt with did not phone me, although their appeal website did not operate as it should have done. Like the lady I retained the evidence of payment but because I was confident in my case I let it go to court.

@@michaelsandy3353 I was wrong. Mine is MET Parking, it's public knowledge what they are up to. Just search for "met parking Southgate park"

The onus of proof IS on the claimant in any civil court claim.

Exactly

She'd have requested a receipt and she would have definite proof of that on her bank statement.

Where did it say that its a parking Eye system? I missed where that was stated. I went to a car park where the terms stated that you had to enter your Vehicle Registraion in and pay for the time you PLANNED on being there.. if you entered the rego incorrectly, then you would be fined, as they would have no payment for your car, and it is your responsibility to ensure it is entered correctly.

@@peterdaly6173 “If”

​@peterdaly6173 this happened to me mum but the other way round, the reg has a 1 the camera read it as an I and she got a parking ticket, but funny enough the letter still turned up to the right address, it even had the wrong reg written on the letter. They said they weren't at fault and she needed to pay the ticket, even though she paid n put the right reg into the machine. Before the carpark was pay n display, n before that a man in a hut, now it's went to camera and reg, and people's been ticketed left right n centre, the carpark made the newspaper cause on one day something like 100 people got parking ticket due to error in the machine/camera, then it happened a few months later too.

And having won, get the press to placard the story across the country. The press love a David v Goliath story.

My details were provided even though I had a valid parking permit for a car park the parking company had no jurisdiction over. They dropped the fine. I complained to ICO who in my opinion are useless. ICO basically claimed parking companies could fish for DVLA data to investigate a possible parking infringement which is utter nonsense as they are only meant to access your information if a parking infringement has occured.

The law says they can provide the details to anyone with "reasonable cause." The issue is that the DVLA regards anyone who is willing to pay £2.50 must have reasonable cause by the fact they are willing to pay them money. If you see a Ferrari in the street you can send off a V888 form with £2.50 and request their address so that you can burgle the house and nick it.

@@2728Alexis You'd have to have a damn good reason for that, though, as an individual.

I'd like to think that my personal details were worth a lot more than £2.50!

I agree with your comments on the ICO. I was very disappointed in their lack of interest over a different personal data breach issue. I try not to park anywhere where these parking companies operate. When I have looked into specific issues, from personal experience, it often appears that the landlord has employed parking enforcers in good faith and they do not realise the problems and dissatisfaction that the rogue operators can cause. I sympathise with people who have paid these charges after threats of legal action. Like me, they probably weigh up the cost of paying versus the cost of defending a case, threats of bailiffs and the mental strain. When these parking companies and their legal associates misbehave they need to have suitable penalties imposed against them @@thatwasyesterday

It is too late, however as she interacted with them it kind of restarted the clock. They likely sent her a notice to keeper which she likely responded to. If they don't send that within a certain amount of time (I think it's 14+2 days) then technically they can only pursue it if you interact, although you still need to make the case that they have missed the deadline. If you provide details of the driver or admit to being the driver, it kind of restarts their time. It's more complicated than I'm making out though, I learnt this due to going through it with one of the parking companies back in 2019, so a while ago.

Statute of limitations is 6 years. During COVID restrictions when nobody was parking much these companies went through their backlog and initiated thousands of claims from years back.

I had a similar experience. It should be illegal to threaten higher charges if you appeal it. I was charged for driving into a car park, read the terms and conditions, decided it wasn't for me and left.

You are better off stopping in the road outside, even partially blocking it to avoid these fines.

Why pay it? B******s!

@gregabott5583 but if the appeal fails then you pay four times as much. Therefore you are effectively paying under duress.

@gregabott5583: Yeah, one council actually stated that if you plan to have an appeal, to not pay and to challenge it straight away (they also state that the "timer" for charging gets paused until you get a response). Luckily found that out the easy way, where I challenged a ticket and won by sending screenshots and a link to their website...

Ahh, but will they go away?? Probably just keep coming back for more.

The Police are too busy with the important stuff - those Pronouns, you Bigot !

Yep, that's the business model.

Oh. I contacted the court and complained that I had only tick box options and no ability to offer tge defence proper. The court said all I could do was refer back to plaintiff.

If its anything like the Solicitors Regulation Authority, they won't do a thing.

Always ignore them from the outset

I’d be happy to pay a yearly subscription to the DVLA , to stop them divulging my personal data , I have in the past written ( special delivery ) and stated that other the Police I don’t wish for DVLA to share my details Obviously no answer , but if I do get a parking invoice from these money grabbing fraudsters I do not pay , if they want any £££ from me proceed to the county court and that is the only way I would pay once a county court upholds their fraudulent claim

@@flossydonnellon4893 The DVLA shouldn't be so free with our info.

In my experience, people/businesses who casually threaten legal action rarely take such action. They assume those words alone will scare people into paying.

Vexatious litigant? Ban the company directors?

That's awful. I was in a similar situation. Had a break down at a Tesco carpark with 2 hr free courtesy. The RAC couldn't come for another couple of hours, so I went inside and told them the situation. The lady asked me to key in my reg number on a digital platform and extended the free parking period, so I guess Tesco manages that particular carpark. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Keep being resolute and giving the same response to the letters and not paying up. They can't argue that their communications have been ignored and realise they are flogging a dead horse.

No, they sent her that for allegedly not parking in accordance with terms and conditions. Whether they are right is a separate question, but don't misrepresent what they did.

@@jdb47games Tell us you don't have any friends without telling us...

No they are scum and are now panicking because fines are their profits. 😊​@@jdb47games

I don't think the DVLA give it out, so either she gave it to them in correspondence, or they blagged it through a data breach.

Better off parking in the public road outside, different parking regime most likely.

Did they specifically say "thousands"? That would be an offence. Small claims court has limited costs, even if you lose. To say otherwise is fraud.

@@2728Alexis on the phone yes in writing no just that it would be considerably more than the £350 they already demanded.

You need to careful with the times of entry and exit. Most operators log your times on CCTV and not from when you obtain a ticket from the machine or pay by phone. Sometimes it can take a while to pay - phones engaged, too many customers, machines not working. My parter thought they were in time by the times marked on the paper ticket but got a PCN for being one minute over based on the CCTV recordings. Our local park needs a manual vehicle registration input and a fine if you get it wrong. It has a poorly lit machine with small yellow painted numbers on stainless steel buttons! It is almost as if they want you to fail...

@@jonathanflatman in my case I don’t buy a ticket I’m exempt. They don’t put a PCN on your car the invoice comes through the post. The only phone number is to take payment. Emails sent to you are no reply, text messages they send you are no reply. The only way to contact them is by letter.

They will often take it to the wire, but will not cross it. The last thing they want it for it to go to court, and for them to lose, it will encourage others to take a stand.

I thought there was a cut-off within perhaps 30 days. 8 months is absurd.

Unfortunately you are quite correct and in Britain (as usual) the Law is a toothless ass. Better to get revenge directly upon the company....

Yes - or broken one of the other T&Cs of parking.

parking should never 'require' a smartphone, not everyone has one or even any mobile phone, i dont ,no need or want for one, if it must be cashless, it should be able to be done by bank card, as far as i know all bank accounts have one now...

if they take you to court, YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE A DEFENCE!. if you don't provide a defence (ie, ignore it), then the judge will award the case to the other party automatically. So your advice is like playing russian roulette.. if they don't bother taking you to court, that's great, but if they take you to court, then you are phucked.

You have no requirement to show what evidence you have before a court case. By letting them take it to court, they are gambling that either you won't turn up, so they get an automatic judgement, or that you can't supply sufficient evidence to defend yourself.

And, as our host said, the court may well award a few thousand £££ court costs against you.

You missed my point. If we have committed no crime, it is their job to prove their case. @@neuralwarp

Valid point, but I will turn up and many should. It is all about bluff, sadly. @@davidspear9790

I've had the same results as you, but they don't always give up these days. There are several Facebook pages dedicated to helping people with PCNs, and it seems that every week there is someone posting who ignored all correspondence until they got the letter telling them they have a CCJ, by which time it's too late.