Simplex Parking - Still at it !!!!

[Duke916]

Hi All,

 

SPS aka Simplex parking services are at it again !!! I came to this community back in March and had some great help/advice, I basically left them to there own devices and followed advice from here. WELL after confirming they were bogus, and under investigation by the local police and trading standards, lo and behold I get a phone call from my transport manager saying ive got this parking ticket from SPS, Ive told him to forward everything to my so i can see it myself, he told me however I have been fined £295 but if im a good boy and pay in the next seven days this is reduced to £150, I heard all this back in March, strange ive got another chance to pay it, come on Muenchy bring it on, yes i know who you are, keep sending the letters, I look forward to meeting you in court.

 

I will keep this forum updated as this farce progresses, please feel free to pm me if you have any questions

Edited July 30, 2008 by Duke916

[Duke916]

Many of the regular posters on here know the problems im having with these people, Ive just seen this in the local rag concerning another poor person caught up with this company, comments would bre appreciated, in particular, article states they are a member of the BPA, I could find no evidence of this, like I said your thoughts and opinions appreciated.

 

Student hit with huge parking fine A Harper Adams student was left ruing Friday the 13th after being hit with a £295 parking fine.

 

Rachel Turney, aged 22, received the fine after parking in The Swan car park.

 

The fine was issued by Simplex Parking Services. All of their penalty notices carry a charge of £295, but if the payment is received within seven days of the date of issue, a range of dicounts are offered.

 

Miss Turney said: “I had just left work and was going for a few drinks with my friends.

 

“I didn’t want to drink and drive so I left the car parked at The Swan. I returned to the car around midday on Friday and when I saw the parking ticket I thought it was a practical joke.”

 

Miss Turney, who studies Agri-food marketing and business, works part-time at the Shell garage opposite The Swan, and was saving up to go the annual Harper Adams ball.

 

She added: “I don't know where I will find the money now. It will take a month with the amount of hours I work, to earn enough money to pay the fine. I feel like I’ve been penalised for being responsible and I don’t want anybody else to fall into the same trap.”

 

Telford & Wrekin Office of Trading Standards confirmed they have been investigating Simplex Parking.

 

Anita Hunt, Trading Standards Operations Manager, said: “We can confirm we have received some inquiries about Simplex Parking Services.

 

“We are positively engaging with the company and advising them on relevant legislation and codes of practice.”

 

Harry Evans, Midlands, Area Manager for Simplex Parking, said: “The fines are set at this price to allow for the cost of car-park monitoring, administration and civil recovery. We are a member of the UK Parking Association, and work within the guidelines, which state no fine must exceed £300.”

 

There are three parking signs in the Swan car park, which state that it is for use of guests on the premises only and cars must display a valid permit.

 

The Swan landlord Nigel Pugh said: “On that particular Friday we had an important function and space was needed in the car park for large vehicles to turn around.

 

“We are happy to accommodate people, as long as we know who they are.

 

“Students and local residents come in to the pub all the time and ask for permits and we give them out free of charge. We are a hotel and we want to make sure that paying customers have space to park.”

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[lamma]

err what is the "UK Parking Association," ? typical rubbish from a PPC. They are not members of the BPA as far as I know.

 

harry evans even calls them 'fines' - a plonker, and one that needs to be stopped from plying this trade.

[Duke916]

Strangely, when i contacted trading standards I couldnt get the name of the manager at Simplex Parking, data protection etc etc !!!!, Now I know its Harry Evans I have something to run with, anyone heard of this guy? Hopefully he will go to court with these tickets so that he can get whats he deserves!!!

[lamma]

Simplex Parking not on companies house, is it an LLP ?

 

got an address p.o box number or similar for them ?

[Duke916]

Sorry, whats a LLP

 

Simplex Parking Regional Complaints Department

PO BOX 287

Telford

Shropshire

England

TF1 6ZH

[lamma]

Limited Liability Partnership

 

found this

Sundissential Shop - Terms & Conditions (Powered by CubeCart)

and national clamps

Traffic Control Management in Shropshire » Yell.com

do a google on that postcode

[Duke916]

Anyone know much about websites? I just found this in the source code for Simplex Parking website, they have the following in there meta data, was it stolen from the NPAS website???

 

content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

type="text/css">

[lamma]

Report them to PATROL - NPAS is dead but PATROL is its child.

[Mossycat]

Nope it's not stolen from anywhere. The metatag field 'keywords' are what serach engines use when somebody looks something up on a search engine (ie google, yahoo etc etc).

 

So anybody searching for npas or national parking adjudication service, ticket, motorist, road traffic act would find that this website was returned in the list.

 

Mossy

[Al27]

The fines are set at this price to allow for the cost of car-park monitoring, administration and civil recovery. We are a member of the UK Parking Association, and work within the guidelines, which state no fine must exceed £300

 

What utter drivel.

[Barnsley Boy]

What utter drivel.

 

Agreed, the correct version should state "and work within the guidelines which state that any fine, other than those imposed by statutory bodies - certainly not us, should not exceed £0, Nil, Nada, nothing, Zip, F*** all"

[Duke916]

I wonder if anyone on here can help me, ive read the template letters, but in my case I dont think they apply.

 

The vehicle ticketed was a company van, the lease company sent the ticket to my company, my company informed me.

 

I am now waiting for the letter to arrive from my company, I have asked for all future correspondence to be sent to me direct.

 

How should i word my letter back to them, as I am not the RK therefore it seems difficult not to make any admissions as to wether I was the driver or not, or should I not reply at all, and just sit it out as some suggest, hope you get my drift, thanks in advance.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Duke916

[lamma]

Check out Schedule 1 of the 2008 Consumer regs re the UK Parking Association claim. In fact check out Schedule 1 anyway. very useful...

[Duke916]

I wonder if anyone on here can help me, ive read the template letters, but in my case I dont think they apply.

 

The vehicle ticketed was a company van, the lease company sent the ticket to my company, my company informed me.

 

I am now waiting for the letter to arrive from my company, I have asked for all future correspondence to be sent to me direct.

 

How should i word my letter back to them, as I am not the RK therefore it seems difficult not to make any admissions as to wether I was the driver or not, or should I not reply at all, and just sit it out as some suggest, hope you get my drift, thanks in advance.

 

I received the letter from them today, considering the alledged offence was comitted on 18 Mar they have taken there time !!! Any ideas how I should reply bearing in mind what I said above, obviously I am not paying anything:)

[lamma]

don't reply to them at all.

Instead write to Trading Standards.

[Duke916]

don't reply to them at all.

Instead write to Trading Standards.

 

Thanks Lamma, I did that in March, they knew about this bunch then, and they still are trying "to negotiate with them to adjust there rates" TS are hopeless, they know less than I do, having said that, they have told me they will ring me back within 5 days with any further information they have on this bunch!!!

[Duke916]

I was given this by someone else who emailed them, I thought this might be source for some amusement

 

--- On Mon, 8/11/08, [email protected] wrote:

 

From:

[email protected]

Subject: Parking

To: *********

*****************

 

 

 

Have you been issued a PCN with the word "fine" on then?

 

Please provide your VRM and date and time the PCN was issued.

 

You are correct if you have a document with the word "Fine" on then this is old stock and differes from out current PCN notices which do not use this word.

 

Please forward the above info for investigation.

 

******

 

 

[lamma]

PPCs will do anything to drag people in - and this one also wants to gather in the evidence of their own wrongdoing.

Do they think people are stupid ?

 

Amusing indeed. You can feel the panic behind the email.

[Duke916]

Telford Trading standards have just phoned me regarding my complaint.

 

This is a brief rundown of what they said, TS have been investigating this company for some time, they have spoken to the owners and agreed wording on PCNs is inappropriate !!!! this has now been changed.

 

TS have told me they ARE DOING NOTHING ILLEGAL, as there is no law on private parking (like there is wheel clamping). they informed me that SPS have told TS they have taken people to court and been successful but SPS would not give details of the case reference.

 

TS went on to say that people should take a stand, but many dont as they "dont want the hassle" TS beleive that if it went to court it would be thrown out !!!!

 

Its a pity, I would love to see these scumbags in court, sadly I think this thread might die, lets see what SPS do next

[Al27]

TS are fools.

 

Of course SPS will say they've taken people to court and won.

 

When you can play the same tricks on Joe Schmo AND Trading Standards, something is seriously wrong with the system.

 

Citizen's Advice is another clueless organisation.

 

Rant over!

[pin1onu]

Telford Trading standards have just phoned me regarding my complaint.

 

This is a brief rundown of what they said, TS have been investigating this company for some time, they have spoken to the owners and agreed wording on PCNs is inappropriate !!!! this has now been changed.

 

TS have told me they ARE DOING NOTHING ILLEGAL, as there is no law on private parking (like there is wheel clamping). they informed me that SPS have told TS they have taken people to court and been successful but SPS would not give details of the case reference.

Not doing anything illegal? What a load of BS.

 

No law on private parking. Yes however some aspects of case law are highly relevant. Perhaps you should send them a copy of the Private Parking Charges guide.

 

It's also highly likely that they are committing offenses under Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act. (Try this link here

 

Any chance you can post up images of their letters, invoices etc - with identifying details removed.

 

So while they might not be doing anything wrong in issuing an invoice per se the wording of their invoices and subsequent letters are IMO breaking at least one law if not several.

 

You should refer TS to any of their communications and ask them to bear in mind as they read them, the AJA S40, Malicious Communications Act, The Fraud Act 2006 and Lamma's favourite The 2008 Consumer Regs. (Have a read of this page here from the UK Insolvency hotline regarding harassment of debtors). Might put a different spin on things as far as TS are concerned.

[lamma]

As I understand it TS have a statutory duty to enforce the 2008 Consumer regs.

In fact if you poke around the TS website you will detailed lists of relevant legislation that they should be enforcing. (different lists for different parts of the UK) .

 

TS drones are useless - you have to connect with someone there who can distinguish their own bottom from their elbow.

[Duke916]

Thanks for the advise guys, to be honest, ive been fighting these scumbags since march, I am now 100% certain they WILL NOT take me to court, I really cant take the time to try convincing the likes of TS I tried before in vain, they are useless !!! I am going to await there (Simplex Parkings) next move, maybe they will be dense enough to take court action but there again I doubt it

 

Here is a link to scans I have, latest letter from Simplex not included as scanner has gone belly up, but will post as soon as

 

muenchy aka Honest Parking |

Thanks again

[lamma]

they won't take you to court - they can't be THAT stupid.