Many thanks for your comments/support/links (which will be followed up) Thanks to the power of social networking I have alerted many others to the *hotspot* in CMK that I fell prey to. Several friends got straight back to me with similar stories so the word WILL spread & hopefully people that cant afford the *fine* wont get suckered into it as I was..... Stef.

Re: CET @ The Hub MK Sadly I found this forum too late & I'm afraid to say that I paid up in fear of the "fine" doubling which I can ill afford. As a local I'm familiar with the parking system & did what I usually do & got a ticket from the machine placing it clearly on the dashboard. I was livid when I got the CET letter as I knew I'd paid for what I thought was council parking as there was no clear signage to say "this is now private parking even though its a continuation of council parking which looks exactly the same" lol! I went back to the same spot the week after having taken on a new client there. I made a point of reading the signs which I then realised were a different company/system. This made me even more cross as you dont expect to have to read EVERY sign EVERY time you park somewhere in your own neighbourhood, just in case its changed. Basically the "fine" has negated the work I've done over the last four weeks for my new client which adds insult to injury. I'm gutted & feel really stupid & will probably contact TS just to add to the volume of complaints. I'm pleased to see that so many had the sense to check out the scamster **** bags (to put it mildly on a public forum) before panicking & paying up.