UKPC - DRP - Vastern Court Reading

[worrybee2]

Hi.

In brief...

 

I drove a car belonging to my wife and parked it in the free parking for customers car park at Vastern Ct in Reading.

 

I left the site for literally 2 minutes then came back and bought a load of stuff at The Range,

looked at some wines in Majestic (but didnt buy) and then bought some stuff in Aldi.

 

When I got back, found ticket, was pretty cross,

when I got home looked at the forums (which at the time were of the ignore until the NKD came through opinion).

 

When the NKD did come through, we replied and told them that I was the driver at the time and not my wife.

She then got a letter back from them saying her appeal had failed...

and then came a slew of letters upping the ante at each stage, but all addressed to my wife.

 

At the time, the relationship was somewhat rocky, so comms weren't great anyway.

So I googled again ad came up with Parking Prankster who recommended an outfit called [removed] who for £16 would fight your case, or pay the fine guaranteed.

I thought great! Paid up, thinking all dealt with, until

 

many months later discovered that the company had collected the money, shut its doors and run... thanks!

 

I had been done over And other expletives.

 

the letters still came,

the charge was now £160,

and started coming from DRP now.

Then there was a lull.

 

After the big High Court case, and appeal, the letters started coming again, citing the High court appeals etc, which made my wife nervous.

 

she wrote to DRP denying their claim ,and suggested they refer back to the first and only correspondence in the matter.

She did not mention my name in that letter.

 

Today, I received, in my name, a letter from DRP, demanding the £160.

This has been going on for over a year

- will have to dig the dates out

- but it must be at least 14 / 15 months,

and this is the first time they have written to the right person.

 

Do I have any defence re time limits - given that they had my details all along?

 

Any suggestions as to what route I should take?

 

Many thanks

[dx100uk]

you ignore them now

 

theres nothing they can do to you.

 

DR+ are a DCA

they are NOT BAILIFFS

 

and have

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS

 

dx

[worrybee2]

Hi

Thanks but it all seems rather vague to just ignore. If they threaten court - wont they do it? And if so - what argument do I have? Do I have any case for appeal or is it way too late for that?

[dx100uk]

with this amount time since the 'ticket'

its usual to continue to ignore

 

there are very few cases of any PPC doing court after all this time.

 

have a read around

 

http://www.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:6449422593&ie=UTF-8&q=UKPC+-+DRP&sa=Search+CAG#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=UKPC%20-%20DRP&gsc.page=1

[ericsbrother]

DRP threaten anything they think will make you apy up but they dont own the debt so they cant actually do anything.

 

Parking companies pay them £15 to send out 3 letters and hope that you pay up.

 

Notice that the amount has jumped to £160.

Why? because if you are dumb enought o belive they have some kind of authority you will pay any amount so they make a nice little earner for themselves.

 

DR+ are not regulated by the FCA so if you do pay them and they dont pass on the money you still owe the original debt!

 

That is why we always say ignre DCA's as they are the last hurrah for these claims.

 

Why would a genuine debt be passed on to these bandits?

[JoeyJoeC]

Just so you know, you don't actually owe anything. They have suffered no loss, and since they are now allowed to send you a "penalty" or a "fine", they send you a "Parking charge notice" which is actually just an invoice of what they think you owe them.

 

They are in the business to make money, not control parking, so any excuse will go with them.

 

The trick is to not worry about it. It won't go to court, and in the very very unlikely case that it does go to court (seriously not going to happen), then in the eyes of the court, you don't owe anything as they have made no loss!

[worrybee2]

Hi All

Thought I ought to update this thread with the outcome... which was... nothing happened. They gave up and went away as you all said they would. Thanks for the advice and help!

[dx100uk]

thank you

[ericsbrother]

UKPC have had a good few spankings where they have sued people for parking on private housing estates for several reasons.

 

they arent going to invite you to give them another one

so they tend to go after people who they think have ignored them

and hope that the sudden arrival of a claim form will make them just pay up so do bear this in mind.

 

If they try it as long as you file a defence in time they will lose.