Changegate car park, Haworth revisited. Keeper details apparently leaked by West Yorkshire Police employee

[Update 31/7/2016 Mr Evans has contacted the Prankster to say he disagrees with elements of this post. The post has therefore been updated to include Mr Evans views]

The Prankster previously blogged about his visit to Changegate car park, Haworth. Although The Prankster did not get a ticket, many other visitors have, and the forums are rife with tales of charges for ridiculous reasons, such as the ticket being upside down, or of possible entrapment by a mysterious woman in a BMW handing over her ticket so motorists could be charged with reusing an invalid ticket. [Prankster note. No conclusive evidence either way has been presented about this mystery lady]

A typical forum message (see link) is as follows:

These men are thugs who profiteer from various scams.
A popular one at the moment is to have a woman (usually a large lady leaving in a BMW) offer you a ticket with lots of time left on it. They then clamp you for transferring the ticket. This woman is clearly in on the deal.

The car park was run by Car Stoppers employed by retired magistrate Ted Evans and The Prankster wondered how the enforcers contacted motorists as they are not a member of a parking-related accredited trade association and so should not be able to get keeper details from the DVLA.

This post on facebook, offers a suggestion. Keeper addresses were apparently illegally obtained through a West Yorkshire Police contact. (Mr Evans disagrees with this version of events).

Gareth Evans, Edward's son, was having an affair with an employee of the West Yorkshire Police, a lady from Haworth called Mrs V**** B*******.
Mrs B*******, on many occasions, provided information off the Police National Computer to Gareth to chase up car park disputes, as the DVLA will not provide them the licence to obtain vehicle keeper details.

The Facebook page Changegate car park Haworth reveals further items of interest. Ted Evans is apparently suing journalist Graham Smith for defamation, part of which is for linking to a song. The song was written by Adrian Crozier and is apparently not complimentary about Mr Evans. Mr Evan's solicitor has excused himself from the claim, leaving Mr Evans to represent himself.

Mr Evans also sued Adrian Crozier for defamation for writing the song. After six years the claim was eventually dismissed in June 2017. The Prankster wishes to make it clear that Mr Crozier's details were obtained from the DVLA, and not from any other source.

The allegation regarding the potential abuse of keeper addresses is extremely worrying. The DVLA have many times stated both to parliament and the public at large that they take great care to protect keeper data and to keep it safe from unscrupulous hands. In The Prankster's opinion there can be few more unscrupulous people than those running Changegate Car Park Haworth, given their reported history of threats, violence, perjury and vexatious litigation. The Prankster is interested on finding out whether they did ever obtain keeper details to pursue parking charges, and if so, how these details were obtained. If they do not obtain keeper details, then the charges are essentially unenforceable, as there is no way to contact the driver or keeper.

The Prankster considers that if you were a vehicle keeper and received a letter regarding parking charges at this car park then it may be worth investigating how your address was obtained. If it was obtained illegally then you may have a valid case against Ted Evans, Car Stoppers or Mrs V*** B*** or West Yorkshire Police and you may also have a valid Data Protection complaint. Please contact The Prankster if you want to be put in touch with other victims.

As of this update (June 2017) so far nobody has yet contacted the Prankster.

As an aside, Ted Evans was probably the person who most contributed to getting clamping banned. When he clamped parliamentary speaker Betty Boothroyd's friend the chain of events ended with The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which banned clamping and introduced keeper liability instead.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster