Premier (vanishing) Windscreen PCN - Parked in Disabled Bay Without Displaying a Valid Disabled Badge

[FTMDave]

This is the not the same company but the thread will give you an idea of what's likely to happen  https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/427570-vcs-pcn-ntk-nicol-street-kirkcaldy-scotland-ky11-1ny/

 

The fleecers will threaten this and threaten that but ultimately do nothing.

 

Being in Scotland gives you a massive advantage.

 

[FTMDave]

I know it's easy to get lost in minutiae and abbreviations.  To keep it simple.  Consider these cases.  For simplicity let's say they are all ANPR captures.

 

Remember that the fleecers get the keeper's details from the DVLA.  But they would have to sue the driver.  They don't know who the driver was.  Lots of people drive other people's cars - my son often drives mine.

 

CASE ONE  The charlatans get their bilge to a motorist in England ten days after the event. They can use an English law, Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act, to transfer liability to the keeper, and can sue the keeper whose address they have.

 

CASE TWO  The spivs get their bilge to a motorist in England twenty days after the event.  That is after the POFA 14 days.  They are stumped.

 

CASE THREE  The conartists get their bilge to a motorist in England twenty days after the event.  But the keeper has stupidly appealed and told them they were the driver.  They can sue the keeper.

 

CASE FOUR  The fleecers get their bilge to a motorist in Scotland ten days after the event.  They're stumped.  There is no POFA in Scotland.  They haven't a clue who the driver was.  

 

That is why dx constantly mentions POFA - it doesn't exist in Scotland.

 

Mcnato's thread concerns another parking company, the most litigious in the UK, reading it will give you a good idea of what your Mum will face  https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/427570-vcs-pcn-ntk-nicol-street-kirkcaldy-scotland-ky11-1ny/#comment-5181397

 

[FTMDave]

You won't understand POFA - I certainly don't - because the vast majority has nothing to do with parking.  It's Schedule 4 of the Act that is the relevant bit.  The fleecers got Parliament to tag this bit on to the Act.  It was meant to help them get round their big obstacle of never knowing who the driver was.  It means that, under certain circumstances like respecting the 14 days and 29-56 days stuff, they can transfer liability from the driver to the keeper.

 

But the great news for you is that it is an English law!  I've been on this forum for nearly seven years and I haven't seen a single court case against a Scottish motorist.  Even historically and elsewhere the only cases I've heard of in Scotland is where someone has been daft enough to correspond with the fleecers and has outed themselves as the driver.

 

What will happen to your Mum is what any company, private parking or not, will do when trying to collect a "debt".  Threaten court in the hope of frightening the person into coughing up, even though in reality they have no intention of doing court.  So your Mum will get some of -

 

1.  A reminder letter saying she has missed the discount period and  she now owes £100 instead of £60 (in reality she owes £0 but they try to scare people by pretending there will be constant increases).

 

2.  A FINAL REMINDER or some such in SCARY RED LETTERS pretending the amount is now £160 (again, in reality it's £0).

 

3.  A letter from a debt collector or a solicitor like Mcnato got.  A debt collector has no powers as it's not their debt.  As for the solicitor, well I used to work in a solicitor's office and these standard letters aren't even seen by solicitors, they're sent out by the office staff.  And as I did that job way back in 1983, nowadays the letter will be on the fleecers' computer and printed out without the solicitor even looking at it.

 

4.  Generally after this they give up.

 

As you can see it's all meant to scare and hint at further terrible consequences.  But it's all hot air from paper tigers.

[FTMDave]

I doubt you're being targeted specifically.

 

As dx says, the private parking companies give backhanders to creeps to get them to check the car park, and the blue badge bay is always going to be an obvious target.

 

Despite the dubious legality of these invoices, to avoid future hassle it'd probably be better if your mum got a blue badge.  You pushed me into looking into how to do so, there's a bit of bureaucracy and faffing around with the council involved, but nothing impossible.

 

 

[FTMDave]

You & your mum can safely keep on laughing at these threats and ignoring them.