Fighting Vehicle Control Services Ltd Private Parking Ticket

[spekta]

I was unfortunate to cross paths with this unscrupulous company back in mid November. I went to a Conference and parked my car in nice out of way gap, no yellow lines or otherwise to indicate I couldn't park here. It did seem a little too convenient at the time but i thought nothing of it and went to my conference.

 

Came out of my conference some time later and was dismayed to find a ticket on my car. Upon further inspection I was amazed to see that this was for £80 . After looking around the area I did manage to find some signs indicating where couldn't be parked on. The nearest sign to where I had parked was positioned on a companys gate (in the situation very much implying that it was the company policy for the car park behind the gate. The sign was quite ambigious and it would certainly not be used by anyone who seriously wanted to deter somenoe from parking on a spot (i.e. the sort where they actually WANT you to park there just so that they can fine you £80.)

 

Not being one to roll over and die I immediately sent them a letter along the lines of: "why did i get this ticket?" this letter reads:

 

Central Payment Office

Vehicle Control Services Ltd

PO Box 686

Sheffield

S11 8XR

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

On - November 2009 I parked on what I believed to be a part of the car park for - car park while attending a - at the aforementioned centre. On returning to my car after the session I was dismayed to find a penalty charge notice; Parking Charge Notice -

 

Finding the ticket came as a real blow as I think it was the shock of it more than anything. I had parked neatly an appropriate distance from another car parked in this area. I had, as far as I was concerned, not parked in anywhere that would be obstructive; the area was clear from yellow lines and other signs instructing not to park where I had parked.

 

I believe that this ticket should be acquitted as there were no signs or other markings to indicate that where I had parked was a restricted parking area. Thus I have not infringed any car parking rules; as no such rules were displayed.

 

I look forward to your early response so that this matter can be resolved.

 

On hindsight looking at the advise from your forums this was a mistake even sending this letter at all . The reply I received to this letter was:

 

The reply I sent back to this (again another mistake i imagine :/) was:

Dear Sir/Madam

 

In your correspondence (a copy of which is included with this letter) you said the following: ‘Our Patrol Officer produced a plan on our copy of the Parking Charge Notice. This plan indicated where our signs are located in the designated area. Please find enclosed our copy of the Notice.’ No such copy was attached to the letter I received. I would like a copy of this notice.

 

On returning to the site in question I carefully analysed the so called ‘clearly visible’ signage. This statement is far from true, a clearly visible sign would be a sign in front of the parking area which was easy to read (for those of us who have to wear strong prescription glasses) and displayed the sentiments that you are expressing, however more along the lines of ‘No Parking’.

 

The reality is that the sign you are referring to is a sign located to the side of the parking area, attached to the gate of a firm (‘conveniently’ implying that this is the policy for the car park of the firm whose gate the sign was attached to, rather than the policy for the road.) This sign could not be described as clear, it would certainly not be used as a road sign or a sign by anyone who genuinely did not wish for people to park in an area. Any sign that actually wanted to advise people to not park in an area would be larger in size, and have a much, much larger font size. It would also be located in a clear position in front of the area in question. I very much doubt that your sign meets any of the requirements set out by the British Parking Association as you claimed, please prove this statement.

 

You claim that ‘the area concerned is private property operated by Vehicle Control Services Limited on behalf of the client.’ I would like proof, in the form of official legal document(s), that you are operating this service on behalf of the client. Any company or individual could issue a ‘ticket’ to any car, parked in any location. Obviously the company or individual must have right to do this (i.e. they have been granted express permission by the land owner) otherwise they have no grounds on which to issue any sort of fine. Please prove that you even have grounds to issue me with this parking notice.

 

I haven't yet received a reply from this letter but I just wanted to know whether people think I should pay or not. Have i dropped myself in it with my letters admitting it was me that was driving, and would I be best to just pay. Have i not got a case because there were actually a few signs, even if they were all very amibiguous.

 

Or do you think that I will be able to fight this out successfully?

 

Thanks so much for your time in reading this huge essay !!

[kiptower]

very good but its a paper [problem] , they cant enforce anything

 

 

there are 3 rules with these Private Parking Companies

 

1) IGNORE

 

2) IGNORE

 

3) GOTO 1

 

 

THEY WILL send you all sorts of threats , ( from desk1 them , desk 2 the so called debt collection department then from the tea boy/girl calling themselves the Solicitor ) saying what they MAY - MIGHT - THINK ABOUT WHAT TO DO NEXT etc even in their despair send you letter with big bold writing in RED

 

then they give up and hope the next person they issue to is mug enough to pay them

[JimmySpangle]

Can you send me £80 too? Has the exact same weight in law - a worthless, unfounded request for money.

 

As above. IGNORE them forever more.

[spekta]

Thank you for your responses, this has set my mind much more at ease .

The company have done what they set out to do well; their threats made me feel uncomfortable to the point that I considered paying. I will now of course do no such thing.

 

I'll let you know If I get any further correspondance which is out of the ordinary, but by the sounds of it I should just expect a handful of threatening letters.

 

I'll also try and contribute my experience on the forum too , I've had 2 further parking tickets in my time (unrelated) but both of these I disputed and got out of paying (they were quite easy ones though.)

 

Cheers for your time

[Al27]

Yep, you've done far far too much already.

 

Just sit back and ignore their threatening junkmail. They will go away eventually.

 

They're just unenforceable invoices.

[asmodeus]

All that writing has done is flagged you for special treatment (extra junk mail) as they think they have you swimming around the hook and just need a little encouragement to bite

 

This encouragement will consist of more threaten invoices with higher amounts and copious quantities of red ink after which it will be passed to the next desk or tea boy who masqueraiding as a debt collector will send you an even more threatening letters saying that if he does not hear from you in 7 days he will pass it onto the solicitor (naughty Lady on the street corner) who will probably suggest all manner of costs for special services

 

All their comunications are invoices and you are not being subject to either a fine or a penalty and the process will take several months

 

All can be safely ignored

[JAMP]

Hi, I have just recieved one of these tickets for parking at cineworld car park. DID YOU EVER HAVE TO PAY THE FINE OR DID IGNORING THEM WORK??

 

Thanks

[Al27]

It's not a fine and ignoring VCS never fails to work.

[JAMP]

So you think I should ignor it? What if it does go to court I've heard of cases where ppl hav had to pay hundreds in the end.

[Dragons Dennis]

Name any one of those cases then.

[kerryclear]

Can anyone elaborate on whether or not they have succeeded in not paying and not actually being fined/sent to court over VCS (slapped on my car at Cineworld Sheffield to be exact)? Just received the charge notice Sunday and was immediately suspicious about it's validity. Especially do not want to pay £80 which is extortionate considering I was on an unusued pavement and not obstructing anything and Cineworld won't be spending any money on making more car parking spaces

[SURFBOY]

I have IGNORED many PPC invoices. Each one has given up after about 3 letters.

[ashmk]

Can anyone elaborate on whether or not they have succeeded in not paying and not actually being fined/sent to court over VCS (slapped on my car at Cineworld Sheffield to be exact)? Just received the charge notice Sunday and was immediately suspicious about it's validity. Especially do not want to pay £80 which is extortionate considering I was on an unusued pavement and not obstructing anything and Cineworld won't be spending any money on making more car parking spaces

 

 

If it's not from the Police or the council then it's complete crap, ignor it and all future letters.

[kerryclear]

If it's not from the Police or the council then it's complete crap, ignor it and all future letters.

 

even if there were quite a few (new) signs stating that you had to park in designated bays and I witnessed two guys going around taking photo's of the vehicles?

(I didn't make any contact with them and no one knows I was driving etc.. read up on the forums but they were all from 2008)

[ashmk]

Correct.

 

Photos do not mean a thing, they simply add to the illusion. They still need to prove who the driver was.

 

If you get a police/council ticket the law states that you must tell them who was driving, however there is no such law for private parking companies so they must either investigate it themselves which will take time and money, trick you into owning up or just bombard you with junk mail in the hope you will fall for it and pay up.

 

So they can take as many photos as they like but without the name of the driver (not registered keeper) they are up sh*t creek without a paddle.

[kerryclear]

Quick update - received an "intention to send out the baliffs" style letter last week - to my parent's house. My vehicle/licence has not been registered there since July so this is curious to say the least. It goes along the lines of "THE DRIVER MUST PAY £125 TO THE OFFICE WITHIN 14 DAYS OR ELSE". Going along the they-don't-know-who-was-driving route, doing nothing and will keep you informed, since all threads I found on this dead-ended on the outcome.

[dx100uk]

So you think I should ignor it? What if it does go to court I've heard of cases where ppl hav had to pay hundreds in the end.

 

yea yea

 

go play elsewhere

 

dx

[dx100uk]

thread closed

 

dx