Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Armtrac Security Services use dodgy tactics to time motorists out of POPLA appeals

Two posters on MSE have received appeal rejections from Armtrac Security Services with POPLA codes which have almost expired.

POPLA codes are meant to be valid for 28 days. Both posters codes were only valid for one day,

To work this scan, Armtrac generate the POPLA code and accompanying letter, but then do not post the letter for several weeks, finally posting it second class.

Here are the timescales.

Letter generated: 1st November
Envelope postmarked: 25 November
Letter received: 27 November
POPLA code expires: 28 November

Letter generated: 5th November
Envelope postmarked: 28 November
Letter received: 1 December
POPLA code expires: 2 December

In a similar pepipoo post, the letter was dated 18th October, but only received on 4th November.

In another MSE post, the letter was dated 1st November and received on 28th November. There was no postmark visible on the envelope.

This is clearly either an ongoing scam, or a failure to run a parking business properly.


What if this happens to you?

The Prankster recommends you complain to the BPA, who are well aware of this practice. Keep the envelope and the letter, and send copies to aos@britishparking.co.uk

Check the expiry of your POPLA code here
http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/popla-code-checker/

Immediately contact POPLA 0845 207 7700 (Open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday) and request an extension of the time to appeal, Email them to confirm the phone call enquiries@popla.org.uk. If they don't agree, immediately file a one line appeal disputing the amount of charge, signage and right to charge. State this is a holding appeal and will be updated later. File copies of the letter and envelope as evidence. Update the appeal as soon as you have researched it properly

The Prankster has raised this issue with the POPLA scrutiny board. If you have further examples you wish to file as evidence, please email a copy of the rejection letter and envelope showing posting date to prankster@parking-prankster.com

The Prankster previously blogged that Mick Cooke of Armtrac threatened to break the fingers of a person he disagreed with.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster



3 comments:

  1. There was one of these on Pepipoo as well this week, not sure if the same poster also posted on MSE too though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So he is still using the same fake address. I am dealing with A NTK dated 16/12 and uses the above PO BOX for appeals.

    ReplyDelete