Parking Control Services Limited (registered company number 06043819) is not the same as "Parking Control Services" who I was unfortunate enough to deal with. Parking Control Services is their trading name, their company is Magnaco Ltd, Registered office: 7-11 Minerva Road, London NW10 6HJ Registered in England & Wales No: 04809559. As a footnote to this whole ordeal, I would love to hear from anyone who has also had a successful judgment against Parking Control Services. If £750 is owed to debtors, it is enough to make an application to court to wind up the company. If I could find enough people who are also owed money, I would consider looking into making such a joint application to finish their operation and get our money back as secured creditors. It is not something I have looked into extensively, but its the only option I can now think of to get my money back! This may be unlikely, but if you have got a judgment against them then please contact me and we can see if we can take it further still!

I have had (bad) experiences with this outfit and I thought I would share those here. Briefly in terms of the facts, I was driving a friends car and had it clamped in an area of Bow, East London where there was not any signs showing I couldn't park there. It turned out that the signs had been pulled down. My friend paid in cash for the release to the tune of £235. In the eyes of the law, where there is no sign prohibiting parking, the clamping is illegal, as the driver/owner has not consented to the risk that his/her car may be clamped (Vine v London Borough of Waltham Forest is the relevant authority). Having discovered this, I felt it was worth the fight and so I disputed it with Parking Control Services in the first instance and received their computer generated response telling me to seek legal advice. I actually happen to be a trainee solicitor and so I followed this through to the Courts. I issued proceedings in the County Court and Parking Control Services didn't even bother to file a defence. I obtained judgment in my favour, naively thinking at the time that I would get my money back. However the following is crucial to anyone thinking of chasing these cowboys: 1. Don't be fooled by their smart website and fancy EC2 postcode. This is a PO Box address. 2. Their registered company address is some obscure address up in Park Royal, North London. This is likewise a shell outfit. The upshot of this is that there is no means of enforcing your judgment should you obtain one. In the normal course of things, you can pay for an enforcement order (£55) and the Court will send bailiffs round to secure the possessions of the defendant. In the normal course of things, the threat of bailiffs on their door going to seize company computers should compel them to pay up. Of course, because there is no office and no computers/other high value items to seize, getting a bailiff will be a waste of time and money. If you have paid a clamping release fee by card then you may have another trick up your sleeve, namely a Third Party Debt Order. A Third Party Debt Order is essentially where with the bank details of the defendant, the court orders the bank to freeze it, disallowing any money going in and reserving the money owed to you. This is an effective method of enforcement, however you will most likely need legal representation for this as you need to persuade the bank of Parking Control Services to disclose these bank details to you for the purposes of litigation. In which case, I would recommend going to a local Citizens Advice Bureau and they can point you in the direction of a local free legal advice centre. I personally volunteer at one called Toynbee Hall which is based near Aldgate East tube, East London. One further point, it may be prudent to check out the company before you begin on the long process of suing them. If the company has a whole host of County Court judgments against them, they probably won't pay up yours either, so its worth doing a search against them. This can be done online at www.registry-trust.gov.uk for a fee of £8. Any questions on this, I'll do my best to respond and clarify. NB: Please do not directly rely on this as legal advice. The above is intended as helpful guidance and the writer accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracy or any losses that this may incur.