UK Parking control continue to chase victims

Although UK Parking Control have issued a statement explaining that they would be refunding victims of the timestamp fraud, they appear not to have informed their payment department.

Neil Horton, one of the victims in Sheffield, today received a demand to pay £100 following POPLA's failure to adjudicate in his favour.

Although the letter is dated 3 September it was received today, 12 September, suggesting it was posted either Thursday 10th or Friday 11th. Incorrectly dating letters is a common parking company trick. The letter gives 14 days to pay from the date of the letter, which expires on Thursday 17th. This puts extra pressure on motorists.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

UK Parking Control - 3rd warden implicated

A report in the Worcester news suggests the UK Parking Control timestamp scam has been going on since at least February 2015.

The incident happened in a car park in Diglis, which if substantiated means at least 3 wardens and car parks are implicated.

The photographs appear to show the car parked at 2.13pm. However the victim, Mrs Gashi, only arrived at about 4pm and was in Powick prviously with her parents, who can vouch for her and her car's whereabouts.

UK Parking Control stated at the time:

“Our photographic evidence is clearly date and time stamped.”

"date and time stamps on its equipment cannot be altered."

The motorist appeal to POPLA, and was turned down. POPLA are not geared up to expect the parking companies to commit fraud, and their verdict was as follows:

"On a balance of probabilities I am satisfied that the vehicle was parked on site at the times stated on the operator's photographs."

The police were asked to investigate, but declined, stating it was a civil matter.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

UK Parking Control 'cash cow' bays at Tritton Retail Park

[Update: someone with local knowledge has contacted to correct the actual bays in question]

Yesterday an ex-UKPC warden explained how some bays at Tritton Retail Park were used as cash cows.

“On this site there are two parking spaces which are not actual spaces, even though they are marked up as bays, a lot of tickets were issued in these spaces to get numbers up (and probably still are).
“The end bay outside Staples, another bay between Pets at Home and PC World, were used as (cash cows), no signage to say these were not bays.

These are the two bays in question, courtesy of Google Maps

You can understand why cars should not park in the leftmost space; parking at the end of Staples would make it difficult to get down the access road.

The reason for not allowing parking by Pets at Home is less clear. Perhaps it is to do with disabled parking. For all intents and purposes, it does appear that where the green car is parked is a legitimate space..

Whatever the reasons the landowner does not want parking in that spot, this does not mean that the bays should be used as cash cows by parking companies. If motorists should not park there, the proper response would be to clearly mark this out, perhaps by using yellow crosshatches on the ground, and even a sign on the wall.

Do not park here; this is not a parking space 

This is a crucial difference between proper management of a car park, and using the car park as a cheap source of money.

Trinity Retail Park is managed by LaSalle investment management, and the contact agent is James Curson (james@cspretail.com). The Prankster calls on Mr Curson to organise proper marking for these non-bays.

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The Parking Prankster

UK Parking Control warden explains how the scam works

The Lincolnite has been contacted by an ex warden to explain how the parking scams work.

“This was one of my former sites I used to cover, being an ex employee of UKPC.

“When they take you on, you are on a KPI scheme. For 20-30 tickets it’s £2 a ticket, 30-40 £3 and so on, however in real world terms, in this car park (Tritton Road) that’s big ticket numbers.

“The push for tickets on this site was unreal, I used to get calls, texts and emails at all hours of the day and night, constantly demanding more, more, more.

“On this site there are two parking spaces which are not actual spaces, even though they are marked up as bays, a lot of tickets were issued in these spaces to get numbers up (and probably still are).

“The end bay outside Staples, another bay between Pets at Home and PC World, were used as (cash cows), no signage to say these were not bays.

“Photos often used to be taken at angles to make it look like people were parked really far out of bays, when they were not.

“As for the time stamp fiasco, CCTV used to be checked first thing in the morning by the car park attendant.

“Let’s say a car entered car park at 9:45 and it was seen on CCTV at 12:00 that time, the warden would change time on camera phone to 9:45 go out and take a picture, then change time again to 12:00, then take a final picture – this was common practice.”

The questions which now must be answered by UK Parking Control are how long has this been going  on for; is this going on with tacit approval of management; how will affected motorists be identified and compensated?

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

How much lost business has UK Parking Control cost Tritton Retail Park?

Here is a typical response from a shopper who spent a lot of money and received a parking charge.

Aggressive parking policies benefit no one except the parking company. Tritton Retail Park has now lost a customer who will take their business elsewhere.

The trick is to find the happy balance between landowner, motorist and operator. This will never be achieved by landowners letting their car parks be managed 'for free'. Portion controlling shoppers is a recipe for disaster, lost business and reputational damage.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

UK Parking Control warden fraud goes back to at least May 2015

[For the story so far, see here]

Following reports in the national press another motorist has come forward with evidence of fraud by UK Parking Control wardens.

Jade Beeby visited Tritton Retail Park on 19/05/15 for a celebratory breakfast at around 10am on 19th May 2015 before an exam at 1pm in Lincoln

However, UK Parking Control stated she parked at 9:34, not 10.00. The pictures show clear evidence of fraud.

The shadows have not changed between photographs, despite them being allegedly 3 hours apart. Also damning is that the three other cars in the picture have not changed.

Ms Beeby paid the £60 under duress, when UK PC refused to accept her appeal. A complaint has now been filed with the BPA.

Ms Beeby contacted UK PC today after hearing of the fraud in the news. The UK PC employee denied all knowledge of the scam and refused to refund the charge.

If the fraud has been carrying on in two car parks since May, then at a rate of 2 fraudulent tickets a day per car park this will have netted UK PC something like £50,000.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

UKPC story so far

UK Parking Control Wardens have been caught out altering the time on their smartphones to issue tickets. The story is the second most popular on the BBC web site.

Here is a summary of the story so far

Analysis of the shadow's on Simone's car

Neil - boot up

Matt - two cars in one space at the same time

How Smartphone timestamps can be faked

UK Parking Control admit to the problem

Here is another report suggesting the problem may go back to 2011
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/continue-fight-drivers/story-13312690-detail/story.html


Other frauds which UK Parking Control wardens may be perpetrating

Issuing charge when ticket is shown in the windscreen

Other Dodgy Practices UK PC Wardens are reported using

Ticketing vehicles in residential complexes at 3-4am in the morning

Targeting residents in their own spaces

Targeting cancer wards as drivers have other things on their minds (Secrets of The Parking Wardens, Channel 4)

Ghost ticketing (putting a ticket on, photographing it, then removing it) (Secrets of The Parking Wardens, Channel 4)

Overview

The fraudulent and sharp practices documented are a direct result of UK PC's business strategy of providing free car park management. This means they must make their money by aggressively ticketing drivers. A previous blog illustrates how this dramatically increases the number of charges issues by comparing two hospital sites.

The Supreme Court is currently deliberating on a matter involving another car parking company, ParkingEye, who also offer parking management for free and who also have been detected using large numbers of dodgy practices. The result is expected in October; we can then expect sanity to return to car park management, or a ticketing free-for-all, depending on the result.

How parking companies tried to manipulate the law to validate their charges

One of the common frauds perpetrated by parking companies is double dipping - charging for one long visit when two were actually made.

Dodgy Practices from Civil Enforcement Limited (CEL)

CEL and sister company DEAL are well known for issuing court claims but not turning up for hearings, relying on scaring people into paying, even though they have no actual case against them. There is currently a criminal case against both companies being held in Aberdeen.

11 DEAL cases stayed in Birmingham

Is Ashley Cohen committing fraud or perjury?


Other Articles

Number of parking court cases filed in 2014

ParkingEye's attempt at gagging The Prankster

ParkingEye v Beavis hoax phone call

How it all started. Highview Parking issue  ticket for overstay when in fact two visits were made.


Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster