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Monday 13 June 2016

Race to the bottom starts in Australia

Messrs Hurley and Davies of IPC fame are apparently expanding their business interests into Australia, as this website shows.


Patron Hallow is one of the side businesses of the Red Cow Gang.

The live site can be seen at this link http://www.parking.asn.au/compliance-monitoring-program/


Amusingly, the site editors forgot to remove the reference to the 'IPC Code of Practice'. Perhaps this is not so silly as the actual code of practice appears to have been lifted word for word from the IPC.

The Prankster warns Australia that the IPC has not been a force for good for parking management but has started a race for the bottom and a general lowering of standards across the industry, with forum shopping rife amongst operators.

Complaints about IPC operators form a large part of The Prankster's postbag, and Hurley and Davies have been noteworthy for their slippery attitude to legitimate complaints and total failure to do anything at all about them. Both their complaints procedure and their appeals service are in The Prankster's opinion a joke, with the appeals service showing all the characteristics of a kangaroo court**.

Although The Prankster has no idea of the level of knowledge of Hurley and Davis of the Australian Legal System, their knowledge of the UK legal system regarding parking is apparent from the wide number of failures of their firm Gladstones in court, with their main claim to fame in the cases appearing to be the increase in Gladstones bank balance at the expense of the parking operators. The only case thus far reported to The Prankster where Gladstones client won, Link Parking, resulted in them getting their contract terminated for their unreasonable behaviour towards motorists, The Prankster therefore warns Australia to take any advice from Hurley and Davies with a pinch of salt and to do their own checking.


Bonzer Parking

The Parking Prankster

** Cue kangaroo joke


8 comments:

  1. The site wants 'to physically record you' [presumably so they can know how many viewers are actually from Oz !!!

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  2. But of course they're going to Australia, it's where the IAS assessors come from. Badum tsss.

    Messers Hurley and Davies won't find such easy pickings down under as the aussie government stopped parking weasels from obtaining owners details as soon as it became a problem,

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/government-to-crack-down-on-private-parking-operators-issuing-fines-20150609-ghk7h1.html

    Consumer Affairs minister Jane Garrett has drafted the amendment to tackle dodgy private operators who issue fake fines on official-looking letterheads and then use debt-collectors to pressure victims to pay.
    "This legislation stops this practice in its tracks," she said.
    "These private car park operators have been clogging our courts, wasting taxpayers' money and ripping people off and this measure is about protecting Victorians."

    DCLG take note ;)

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  3. They are running similar efforts in other countries as well, they recently ran a private parking seminar in India for example.

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  4. Thank you Parking Prankster for this information. I am in Australia. What these clowns have not realised is that in the two most populous states, New South and Victoria is that they have cracked down on PPCs and stopped them from petitioning the courts to get access to a motorist's registration details and issue them with breach of contract notices. (As per Ewan Hoosami's post)

    Also in April 2012, the Victorian Supreme Court in a landmark case brought about by Consumer Affairs Victoria, ordered Ace Parking and it's employees, to stop using misleading tactics and fined the company $14,500. Their tactics, which were found to violate the Fair Trading Act, included the issuing fines and threatening legal action without any legal authority, mimicking the look and language of legitimate council and government notices, and harassing people to pay. The demands of Ace Parking were proven in fact to be a penalty charge therefore they are unenforceable.

    Channel 9's A Current Affair and numerous consumer organisations I might add too, have had these unethical businesses in their sights for years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Timing is everything!!

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/government-to-crack-down-on-private-parking-operators-issuing-fines-20150609-ghk7h1.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barry, at least we have some sort of protection from these vultures. Also we don't have commercial justification laws here either.

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    2. Commercial justification is not a law, nor was that interpretation upheld by the Supreme court. What the Supreme court ruled was that in line with the original Dunlop tyres ruling that it wasn't unconscionable.

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