Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi All,

My wife has received a PCN for parking in Scotland that she actually paid for and has evidence that this is the case. The company (I Park Services Ltd) has ignored her appeals and hasn’t even acknowledged them. This has now been passed to DCBL (Bailiffs) who are saying she may be taken to court. I have told her to ignore it, is this correct?

It may have. As she had paid for the parking she didn’t think it would matter.

They (DBCL) started by saying that the registration was wrong until I pointed out that you can’t put a wrong registration in to their system, this then changed to she must have paid for somewhere else even though the tap 2 pay receipt shows the same time, cost and car registration.

A classic case of the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree being plucked off and scammed because they paid up out of ignorance and fear.

What is not clear from all the above is if the PCN was paid (completely unnecessarily), do you have proof of payment? If so, on what basis is DCBL claiming that there is a debt owed to I Park Services Ltd?

As already mentioned above, DO NOT enter into any communication with DCBL or any other debt collector for that matter. Debt collectors are powerless except to try and persuade the low-hanging fruit to pay up, as mentioned, out of ignorance and fear.

The problem here is that the PCN has been paid and so that money is gone whilst I Park Services laughs all the way to the bank. Paying the PCN is tantamount to admitting liability when all the Keeper, the person who received the Notice to Keeper (NtK), had to do was deny liability without identifying the driver.

Anyway, I will place a £100 bet that no debt claim will be filed under the Simple Procedure in Scotland for a single PCN. There are many reasons for this but I am confident to make the bet, if anyone cares to take me up on it.

You have the option of completely ignoring everything that you get in the post form now on and this will wither on the vine, or you can try and waste your time and effort communicating with any of these companies, for the same outcome. I would advise the former is the easiest option.

As far as the money wasted on paying the PCN in the first place, I'm afraid that has gone to fund the scammers. Hopefully a lesson has been learnt for any future PCNs should not be paid until the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 introduces a keeper liability scheme.

The PCN wasn’t paid the actual parking was paid for at the time of parking. They are saying that we must have paid for somewhere else!

You weren’t clear but I guessed this was what you meant; use letters from DCBL for your hamster or something, ignore, and only come back if you receive anything else which, in Scotland, you probably won’t.
Remember, DCBL are debt collectors and know nothing about the alleged debt other than the amount and the company paying them commission to collect it. Anything else they tell you is made up.

Sorry to jump in here but I have a similar issue - Notice to Keeper from Smart Parking re an alleged overstay in car park at Kinnoull street, Perth. Keeper is registered in England.
Can I just clarify whether the (current) Scottish law of no keeper liability applies in this case? Is the applicable law that of the location of the alleged breach of contract or the address of the known Keeper?
Thanks in advance.

Under current UK law, there is no keeper liability for private parking charges arising from incidents that occur in Scotland. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4), which allows parking operators to hold the registered keeper liable if the driver is not identified, applies only in England and Wales. It has no legal effect in Scotland, regardless of whether the keeper resides in England.

This means that if a parking contravention takes place in Scotland, the parking company must pursue the driver directly. They cannot rely on PoFA to transfer liability to the keeper. The keeper is under no legal obligation to identify the driver, and if they choose not to, the parking company has no lawful basis to enforce the charge against the keeper.

Although the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 includes provisions for introducing keeper liability in Scotland, those provisions have not yet been commenced. Until they are brought into force, liability for private parking charges in Scotland remains with the driver only.

In summary, if the alleged contravention occurred in Scotland, the keeper cannot be held liable under current legislation, even if they live in England.