£100 illegal parking demand

[Mattbigwood]

Thanks for the advice - I have written to the DVLA data protection department about my concerns over cloning. Will post any further developments.

[Sailor]

If the original letter uses the word 'fine' and has come from a company, it's illegal.
As above, any 'penalty' notice has to refer to loss of earnings or other previous agreement.
How much are they asking for, and where are they expecting you to send it?

In the meantime, contacting the DVLA is the right way to go. The police contact won't hurt, either.

The cloning possibility is more disturbing than the try-on.

[mercutio]

The cloning possibility is more disturbing than the try-on.

this^^^^^^

[Mattbigwood]

The cloning possibility is more disturbing than the try-on.

this^^^^^^

Yes, that's the most worrying bit. Someone suggested I contact a police fraud site about it - which I will do tomorrow.

[Raggagirl]

If it is the council, you will have to pay. I would contact the council fo that area and speak to them. They are private agents out there, but I am not sure if they have a right to charge a penalty... they can threaten to 'clamp' you, but that is about it. But saying that, supermarkets and some hyper market now has ANPR and they state that you get however many hours free parking. Anything after that, they fine you. BUT... as you say, you wee not in the area, check out their photographic evidence.

[paul bristol uk]

For the ticket does the last word read charge or penalty, If its charge tell them to sod off. Also ask for a picture of your car allegedly in Birmingham. My worry is that it has been cloned so as others have said ring 111 and contact the DVLA.
Cloned cars are not just used for parking its usually crime. So if you don't want the police pulling you over and waving firearms at you or breaking your front door down don't let this slide.

[Sailor]

But saying that, supermarkets and some hyper market now has ANPR and they state that you get however many hours free parking. Anything after that, they fine you.

Based on our experience a year ago or so, they work on the assumption that by parking on their premises, you have agreed to their terms and conditions.

Still, they cannot fine you. All they can do is send you a bill. This has to be based on loss of earnings. For example, if they can show that they've lost custom, they might have a case. But what happens if the car park has at least one space free while you're there? No case!

Typically, if you ignore the bill, which must not look like a legitimate police or council notice, they'll send you a reminder. The charge will go up over time, which proves that the 'loss of earnings estimate' is nonsense. Keep ignoring it. The charge may start to come down again. At this point, you'll know you did the right thing!

There may even be a threat to get a debt recovery agency involved. Likely as not, the agency will be part of the same firm. Please note that they do not have the power to take goods in kind without a county court judgement. I did some research a while back and couldn't find evidence of a single CCJ for supermarket parking.

@mattbigwood Any chance of posting a scan of the letter?

[bb1boy]

yep that should be the first step but they are probably just scamming you taking reg's off the interweb or something

Probably taking the reg's off of the pics of our cars from this site!

Wasn't someone saying something about private threads...??

[Mattbigwood]

Here's a scan of the letter with my details blocked out. Just had a phone call from ANPR sounding like they've made a gentleman's sausage-up and put in the wrong registration. Let's see what happens next. As far as I'm aware I've never posted a pic of my Vectra anywhere online.

[bb1boy]

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk ... r-ltd.html