I’m wondering if any ppruners have had any dealings with the above company?
I’ve just received notice from them dealing me out a sixty pound fine (increasing to ninety if I don’ t pay early) for overstaying in the Welcome Break parking area at Fleet on the M3.
Hand up – I did. I left Devon late on the night of the floods there, fearing I would be stuck in the morning when I had planned to drive up to London in a hire car to catch a long haul flight later in the day. By the time I was passing Fleet it was about 2 am and I was tired, so I pulled into a completely deserted car park and closed my eyes. Slept longer than I intended and woke up in the still deserted park the next morning, grabbed some breakfast and departed, not realizing I only had two hours free parking.
My fault – they do have notices there which I didn’t see, but is it worth appealing on the grounds of safety – or should I pay up now?

it's ironic isn't it. with signs and reminders 'if you're tired take a break'... then get fined for doing so.


:ugh::ugh:

Didn't we just go through this on another thread, and the general opinion was that these people have no actual legal standing? IIRC, the advise was to ignore them. (I could of course be wrong)

Do a search. There was a thread about this within the last six weeks or so. General consensus was don't pay.

DO NOT pay it, DO NOT contest it, or under ANY circumstances admit you were the driver.
See the other thread on here and/or the forums at pepipoo.com

There is some useful advice on the Consumer Forum's website - link below. Basically, unless the notice is issued by the police or the local council it's not a fine, it's an invoice by these scamming parking companies, who try to bully and intimidate people into paying up.

Private Parking Tickets AKA Speculative Invoices (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?309210-Private-Parking-Tickets-AKA-Speculative-Invoices)

These guys seem to know what they are talking about.

FightBack Forums -> Private Parking Tickets & Clamping (http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60)

But basically ignore all the correspondence.

And another forum to read lots of the same advice, look at the stickies at the top for sample letters and links to TV programmes

Parking Tickets, Fines & Parking - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163)

Long story short... If they can fool/scare/pressure people into paying between £60 and £90, all for the cost of a stamp, then they will.

And do, because the success rate makes it viable to do so.

Appreciate the feedback guys and checked out the web sites mentioned.

All reinforce the message, "Don't pay and Ignore all correspondence."

However, it seems to me that a lot hinges on driver identity and as I was using a hire car at the time, it would be difficult to deny I was the driver; should of course it come to the point of having defend court action.

If I were currently in UK and if I had been driving my own car, I would have followed all the advice given.

However, to save hassle, I've paid - and learnt a lesson.

Once again, thanks and appreciate the response.

However, it seems to me that a lot hinges on driver identity and as I was using a hire car at the time, it would be difficult to deny I was the driver; should of course it come to the point of having defend court action.Almost never goes to court because these people would have to prove that you entered into a contract with them. If you get, for example, a speeding fine the first letter you get asks you to state the driver. If, as the registered keeper, you fail to answer you will be prosecuted for failing to answer. There is no law that these parking companies have access to at the moment. However they are trying to get parliament to give them this power, the power to 'fine' the registered keeper. A power which is greater than your local council have.

They took over the management at our local surfing beach last year.

It's now regarded as "free parking."

They send you an invoice a couple of times, then forget you.

Check out the "Watchdog" link.:O

I received a PCN (parking charge notice) from these muppets a couple of months ago. Their letters are carefully made to look like authentic PCNs (PENALTY charge notice) as issued by the police or local councils. They even have a chequered border and can look quite convincing and official.
Following all the advice I read on the web I ignored the PCN. There then followed 2 follow up letters each becoming more threatening...court action, baliffs, ccj etc. ALL were ignored and I've now heard nothing more.

So it seems you can get good advice on the web after all.

Hired cars are more difficult. Despite all the above being true, ie. these pirates have no legal standing, so don't pay, hire companies have a policy of paying anything that they receive: they then chase you, the hirer, usually by simply debiting your credit card.

'Driver Identity' doesn't come into any more: the 'ticket' has been paid, end of story. Your 'debt' is now with the hire company and subject to normal hire agreements, not the Road Traffic Act. What you have to now prove is that the hire company should not have paid the 'ticket' in the first place: you can imagine how difficult (read: 'impossible') that would be.

The words 'money' and 'old rope' come to mind.

I received a PCN (parking charge notice) from these muppets a couple of months ago. Their letters are carefully made to look like authentic PCNs (PENALTY charge notice) as issued by the police or local councils. They even have a chequered border and can look quite convincing and official.


Now, I'm no legal expert, but is that not tantamount to demanding money with menaces ?

I'm still on the case with UKPC and they do seem to be getting sucked into having to take me to court. Thats when it all kicks in and becomes a test case. I do hope they don't drop out, but at the moment its looking good for a showdown in Hertford County Court.

I might add that it won't cost me a penny personally and the outcome will only decide the subsequent direction:
1. They lose. We go to the press/media to maximise publicity that they cannot enforce a penalty payment that is not based upon a genuine estimate of their loss.
2. I lose. In which case we continue, via a party policy change, to get the law changed. [I am a member of the party's policy forum]

I do love a good scrap.

It seems the car hire company have passed your details on to the crooks and you are dealing directly with them.

If not, unfortunately, in the case of a hire car, gruntie is right. You will have signed an agreement with them stating that you accept responsibility for any fines, infringements etc. That said, you need to check the wording of that clause very carefully, as it might say 'local authorities, police .....' rather than just a general 'infringements and penalty charges' catch-all.

If the car rental company has paid, you are in a corner, and they also charge and admin fee of typically £40 for the privilege. If not, contact their accounts office and ask them not to do so and see what happens.

There's what appears to be some good information on the Honest John website (http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/private-parking-penalties/)

Colleague of mine also got PCN from these clowns at Oxford services a couple of weeks ago. The twist to this was that he ignored the letters, however the car was a lease car.

The lease car company charges £24 for every letter they pass on, which is automatically charged to company. After 2 letters, company informed colleague to pay up:=

Oh...and whilst I remember...NEVER examine their signs in car parks. Apparently their latest ploy is to capture you on CCTV reading their terms and conditions. This is, according to the clowns, tantamount to you accepting the parking charges and even entering a 'contractual obligation' to pay. I'm not too sure how that'd stand up in court if it ever got that far.

I must say, I'm not, in principle, against paying car parking charges. I used to budget them into my surfin' costs. I think it's probably fair enough to pay a fiver for the convenience of perkin' me car next to the surf for the day.

In this time of recession (:uhoh:) I do try and avoid, rather than evade them, by parking out of season/rush hour, researching the less touristy places, even joined the National Trust, in order to use their car parks for free. (How middle aged is that!)

Parking Eye, however, are tw*ts, the car parks they govern are overpriced, and the pricind structure is often unclear. (Fistral and Watergate Bay), so take great pleasure in collecting my Parking Charge Notices ! They make great fire lighters.

I managed to get a speeding ticket cancelled a couple of years ago. I know it's not parking but might help someone.

I was the registered keeper and in bed asleep at the time of the alleged offence. My car was caught by a fixed camera doing 42 in a 30 limit. My wife and another person (who was insured to drive the car) were the occupants but neither could recall who was driving at the time.

I did my research and provided the occupants' details as required by law and took the required reasonable steps to find out the driver's identity - this includes potentials such as garage forecourt and motorway camera imagery.

I drew a blank over my enquiries and since beating a confession out of my wife is apparently beyond 'reasonable' the fine etc was formally withdrawn.

I did not fill out or sign any of the formal paperwork but kept my correspondence very polite and queried how I should proceed and help the inquiry. The internet is a wonderful resource for this sort of thing.

Had the speeding camera captured my wife's distinctive hair or the other occupant's reflective dome it would have been a different story.

This would seem relevant to this thread

Private Parking Signs: Your Help Needed


Many private parking signs use unclear wording and bad layout, meaning they are likely to mislead motorists. The signs are sometimes so bad they breach the British Parking Association's notorious code of practice for approved operators, but the BPA seems to discipline very few companies for bad signage.

Martin Cutts of Plain Language Commission is gathering evidence of good and bad private parking signs and documents as part of a report he'll present to the Government about how the British Parking Association is failing to police its code of practice. He's also been challenged by the BPA to provide evidence of bad signs and documents being used by its members.

He needs clear close-up photos of signs used by BPA private members (nearly all will show the BPA logo) all over the UK. It will help if you can also provide context photos showing where the signs are positioned and whether there are entry and exit barriers. So if you have a private car park near you that's operated by a BPA member, eg at supermarkets, motorway services, shopping centres, tourist hot-spots, please take the best close-up photos you can of the signboards, including the detailed terms and conditions, and email them to Martin at privateparkingsigns@<hidden>

There's a typical example of a poorly worded sign in the Plain Language Commission newsletter, downloadable here


Examples of words that Plain Language Commission experts consider unacceptable on private parking signs include fine, penalty, offence, Regulations and Authority but even if you don’t see these, please still send the photos. Often the language and get-up of a sign is simply unclear and this is equally prohibited by the code.

Please give the following details when sending your photos:

1 Your name and contact details
2 Date of photo
4 Location of sign (eg, name of shopping centre or superstore)
5 Name of BPA member unless it’s clear from the sign
6 Name of landowner if known
7 Any other comments

As regards documents, Martin wants parking charge notices and letters from private parking companies and their debt collectors and solicitors. Please send scans or PDFs to Martin at privateparkingsigns@<hidden>

Your name and contact details are required for verification only. Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose or shared with any third party for any reason.

There's no deadline as this work will continue, but anything you can send by the end of August 2012 will be especially helpful.

Martin’s postal address for any paper documents is;

Plain Language Commission,
29 Stoneheads,
Whaley Bridge,
Derbyshire,
SK23 7BB.




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