DVLA will give data for free if there is a legitimate reason

Although DVLA like to charge £5 for telling you if a PPC accessed your data, they will give it you for free if there is a legitimate reason, such as suspected fraud. This email provided to the Prankster illustrates the point.

Hi [DVLAPerson] , I believe that [NaughtyParking] may have committed an act of criminal fraud under the Fraud Act 2006 (Fraud by false representation (Section 2)) by falsifying the date of the letter  to allow them to pursue a parking charge against me. In order that I can fully investigate the matter, and if necessary pass the information to the police, can you please confirm the date you supplied to [NaughtyParking] the keeper records of the vehicle in question. Given the circumstances I do not believe that your request for a fee is fair or relevant. I am not requesting personal details of a car/owner which you normally charge a fee but simply asking you confirm the date that your agency supplied a third party with my information as it is well within the balance of probability given the facts that they have falsified the date of the letter. I would also remind you that the whole situation has been created by DVLA passing on for commercial benefit my personal details to a company with questionable conduct (google [NaughtyParking] to see the level of negative reporting).

I look forward to your co-operation.

Regards,

[ConcernedMotorist]

Thank you for your email regarding the release of information from the records held at DVLA.

I can confirm that a request to obtain the keeper details of the vehicle was made by [NaughtyParking] on the 22^nd May 2013. The response was issued the following working day.

I hope this assists with your enquiries.

Kind regards

[DVLAPerson], thank you for your response.

Could you also confirm what method of communication was used to inform [NaughtyParking] of the keepers details ie by post.

Regards,

[ConcernedMotorist]

The relevant information was provided electronically via an SFTP network.

I hope this information helps with your enquiries.

The Prankster notes that the DVLA are getting a lot of requests for data at the moment. Here is one of the minutes from the latest DVLA consumer forum

23.      DVLA reported receiving an increasing amount of correspondence from the public around Schedule 4 of PoFA.  Where ANPR is used the ticket needs to be provided to the motorist within 14 days and there are concerns that companies may be implying keeper liability outside of these timescales. DVLA had written to BPA asking them to advise their members that such disregard for this legislative requirement could lead to their suspension from receiving keeper information.

The Prankster asks that motorists do not abuse the information provided above and only ask for their data for free when there is a genuine suspicion that the Parking Company are dodgy. A good benchmark would be to download the POPLA annual report and check the number of upheld appeals. If there are more than one or two then the company is obviously flying close to the wind. The email address to use is David.Dunford@dvla.gsi.gov.uk.

The Prankster would like to thank [ConcernedMotorist] and Kevin Twats, his DVLA mole, for the information.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster