ParkingEye make yet another fraudulent charge

ParkingEye yet again issued a parking charge for a car which was not in the car park for the times they claimed. This is such a frequent occurrence that it cannot be explained away by errors in the system. Quite simply, the technology they are using is not fit for purpose and should be shelved until fail-safes are put in the system.

In this latest debacle, a ticket was issued to a driver who visited Costa Coffee Hindpool in the morning. The motorist works as a personal care assistant so drove to various appointments, as his worksheet and mileage log confirms. He then visited Costa again for a second coffee. ParkingEye duly issued a charge for a 6 hour stay even though the driver actually visited twice.

In any other industry, companies who repeatedly issue bogus invoices with would be censured and forced to mend their ways, if not actively prosecuted for fraud for wilfully operating a system they know does not work. However, ParkingEye are "too big to fail". The DVLA dare not take action because they generate so much income it would put senior executive performance related pay at risk, and the BPA dare not take action because ParkingEye would up sticks and move to the IPC.

In this particular case the motorist complained to the local Costa and left a post on their facebook page. They said they could not help. The motorist then contacted the CEO of the UK Costa chain, Tom Gower. Mr Gower correctly required ParkingEye to cancel the charge. This is usually the best way to get these fraudulent invoices cancelled - ParkingEye usually refuse to cancel if you contact them directly* and have taken many motorists to court when in fact it was their own equipment which failed. Sadly ParkingEye's irresponsible actions can have great effect - The Prankster has been contacted by people who have trouble buying a house because of bogus invoices like this; ParkingEye often write to the wrong address and will try and file a court claim and obtain a CCJ before attempting to find the correct address.

The motorist left another post on the Costa Facebook page thanking Tom Gower.

Currently the motorist is still waiting for confirmation from ParkingEye that the charge is cancelled, although he has seen an email from ParkingEye to Mr Gower confirming this.

The motorist could also consider making a complaint to the ICO, as Alexander Owens did. ParkingEye are negligent and reckless to keep asking for keeper data when they know their systems are flawed.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

*despite this, best advice is still to appeal to ParkingEye, and then to use POPLA to get the charge cancelled. POPLA are well aware of ParkingEye's failures in this area.