Private Car Park Ticket Advice Required From Company Called UKCPS.

Cut a long story as short as poss - Went to the Dockside Outlet Centre in Chatham Maritime early in August. Got down there in the beautifull sunshine, jumped out the car quickly as it was 17.20 & the shops would be closing soon but inadvertantly parked straddled over the white line though that part of the car park was ni-on empty.
Whilst in the shop I looked out of an open door in the shop to see torrential rain & thunder. On return to the car we put the wiper on to find something stuck to the glass which then broke my wiper blade as it was put on. I got out the car to find a small open plastic bag with the remnants of what I assumed was a parking ticket that someone else had had from possibly a council carpark & dumped it on my screen. I got it out of the bag to try & read it but it was an illegible mess & there was no info on it to read as though it was only part of a ticket.
As I couldn't read it & had no real idea as to what it actually was I discarded it. 3 weeks later we got a letter asking for £100. I sent an appeal explaining the above plus telling them if they wished to persue the ticket I would sent them a bill (being self employed) for the wiper arm & bill them £20 per hour to take it to the garage to get it sorted. A letter arrived yesterday rejecting it.
I am known as Victor Meldrew by family etc & rang them up only to speak with some dumb obnoxious jobsworth who checked the photo to say it was sunny when the ticket was issued at 17.23 but totally refused to acknowledge or check the camera to see that it was raining a few minutes later. I mentioned the damage & invoice, she said you can send an invoice & it would be put in the shredder. I can't deal with xxxx like that.

I have seen companies like this on BBC Watchdog but can't quite remember the outcome, any ideas.

BE WARNED THE COMPANY IS UKCPS based in Leeds & have plenty of sites countrywide. They are quite obviously theiving ,robbing, obnoxious, arrogant bar-stewards and need to be treated with the contempt they deserve.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/show...?t=4082845

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?s=2b...opic=46975

Had a little google, and reading te above may help a bit. 2nd link was just from one of te replies from the 1st link. Quite a lot of threads about private parking tickets. Hope ths helps a little

if it were the ticket on it's own, then it's a clear "bin in".
As you have responded you're now a "live one" - so they'll keep hounding you with threats of debt collectors and courts etc.
But the ticket 'contract' is with the driver not the car, and they are not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you were the driver (unless you admited it on the phone and they have it recorded).

Now, the difficulty is the damage to your car - they will undoubtedly bin any invoice you send them, so small claims would be the weapon of choice - it is afterall criminal damage, and since the parking and damage are 2 separate issues, you could still argue both..... ie, you weren't driving, but there is damage on your car.
These companies take the piss, so I'd fight it all the way

Had one of these myself from visiting McDonalds Billingsgate twice in 90 mins. I made the same mistake of responding to it and they kept hounding me. I never responded any more after reading about it on the web and after a year they stopped sending bills. It went up to £250 before it stopped and even my wife was suggesting I pay it as she didnt want a bailif knocking on the door. Ignore it and it will eventually go away as its not a legal fine.

(03-09-2012 02:23pm)Kentboy Wrote:  Had one of these myself from visiting McDonalds Billingsgate twice in 90 mins. I made the same mistake of responding to it and they kept hounding me. I never responded any more after reading about it on the web and after a year they stopped sending bills. It went up to £250 before it stopped and even my wife was suggesting I pay it as she didnt want a bailif knocking on the door. Ignore it and it will eventually go away as its not a legal fine.

Many thanks. I was the driver but my wife is the registered keeper ( I was in the Rover 25) so they sent it to her & she only has a provisional licence.

I did think that if I were to pay I intended writing several cheques with different dates for £10 each!!

Another trick is to make out a cheque 1p more than the invoice . This wouldn't work with these parking firms as no doubt they just make up there prices. But for a company with fixed costs or where there computer can't handle a payment more than a bill