Mistakenly went through Heathrow T4 drop-off due to missed turn.
Got letter from APCOA and then their silly debt recovery goons. Frankly I'm done with this country and I'm happy to just ignore it, but the letters are going to my Mum's address. She is older and is very easily fooled and intimidated by scary sounding letters such as TV licensing etc.
So I wanna make it go away. Money is not really an issue but on principle I'm not wanting to pay these parasites. I'm prepared to be petty and put in more time than it's worth, just to ruin someone's day who works for parking enforcement.
I've seen people use the following defence:
I am the registered keeper. APCOA cannot hold a registered keeper liable for any alleged contravention on land that is under statutory control. As a matter of fact and law, APCOA will be well aware that they cannot use the PoFA provisions because Heathrow Airport is not 'relevant land'.
If Heathrow Airport wanted to hold owners or keepers liable under airport bylaws, that would be within the landowner's gift and another matter entirely. However, not only is that not pleaded, it is also not legally possible because APCOA is not the Airport owner and your 'parking charge' is not and never attempts to be a penalty. It is created for APCOA's own profit (as opposed to a bylaws penalty that goes to the public purse) and APCOA has relied on contract law allegations of breach against the driver only.
The registered keeper cannot be presumed or inferred to have been the driver, nor pursued under some twisted interpretation of the law of agency. Your NTK can only hold the driver liable. APCOA have no hope at POPLA, so you are urged to save us both a complete waste of time and cancel the PCN.
(from this thread:
https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/heathrow-pcn-inadvertently-went-through-drop-off-not-car-park-but-did-not-stop!/msg36854/#msg36854)
It sounds really smart but does it actually work? Has anyone used this successfully?
Cheers.
It sounds really smart but does it actually work? Has anyone used this successfully?
100% of the time with airport APCOA cases. It should be sent in the name of the keeper (so your mum in this case?) using their online system, as the registered keeper only, no admissions as to who was driving.
Got letter from APCOA and then their silly debt recovery goons.
If your mum is receiving the letters, are they addressed to her as she is the Keeper or is the Keeper simply using her address for the V5C?
Either way, if debt recovery letters are being sent, it is too late to appeal. The appeal you have referenced would 100% have seen the PCN cancelled. As it is now past any appeal deadline, the only way to get this to go away is to ignore the useless debt recovery letters. Debt collectors are powerless to do anything except to try and persuade the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear.
APCOA are benign and will never litigate this issue. Eventually, their debt collectors "goons" will give up and the matter will just whither on the vine, so to speak.
Either way, if debt recovery letters are being sent, it is too late to appeal.
Quite right, missed that upon first reading.
Thank you for the replies. I am the keeper and registered at my mum's address, I'm currently out of the country.
Would filing a stat dec work to get this reset to PCN stage?
Thank you for the replies. I am the keeper and registered at my mum's address, I'm currently out of the country.
Would filing a stat dec work to get this reset to PCN stage?
No.
A statutory declaration resets a court judgment, often when the defendant didn’t know about it for a good reason.
This hasn’t gone to court yet. You get to defend it if it does, but advice here has been that APCOA don’t
do court, so you just need to ignore letters from debt collectors until they give up. As in
Reply #2 above.
How long do you expect to be out of the country?
If it is likely to be for an extended period, even just a few months, then you should instruct APCOA’s Data Protection Officer to update their “address for service” to your overseas address, provided you can show reasonable proof that you are resident there for the period in question.
Here’s how that works in practice:
Under UK GDPR (Article 16 & 19), you have the right to request rectification of personal data, which includes updating contact details.
You should make this a formal data rectification notice to APCOA’s DPO, stating that all correspondence must now be sent to the overseas address and that the UK address must be erased or marked as obsolete.
APCOA must then update their records and pass the change to any third parties they have already shared the data with (e.g., debt recovery agencies) unless it’s impossible or disproportionate.
Debt collectors are obliged to stop contacting the UK address once they’re informed of the new one — continuing to write there after being told it’s not the service address could be harassment or misuse of data.
Most debt recovery agencies will refuse to post abroad and instead return the case to APCOA, effectively ending contact until APCOA decides what to do. It won’t “wipe” the underlying parking charge, but as APCOA doesn’t litigate, then the chain of threatening letters usually stops.