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My wife recently got a Parking Eye fake PCN. I am in the process of taking the standard rejection then POPLA route which is currently advised. This post is not about the case in particular.
What I want to know is whether there is a case to get Parking Eye and other PPCs prosecuted for fraud. I am no lawyer, so I don't know exactly what law they could be charged with, but it seems to me that their entire business model is fraudulent, at least as far as "free" car parks are concerned.
My logic is this:
- they are claiming the charges as a pre-estimate of loss
- since they do not charge for parking, the only money they receive is from charges *
- in order for this to commercially viable, the charge must include an element of profit
- therefore the charge is by definition not a recovery of loss
- they have failed dozens of times to justify the pre-estimate of loss in POPLA adjudications and in court
So they knowingly send out hundreds of unjustified invoices, and harass people until they pay. This must surely be illegal. And that's before you get to the underhand tricks they play re signage, mimicking official penalty charge notices and so on. Things like that are subjective grey areas, but surely sending invoices you know to be false is pretty black and white. Its not too far removed from a "Nigerian prince" email scam.
* this is a potential weak point if the landowner pays them to manage the site, but its my understanding that they usually offer their services for free, in fact paying the landowner a chunk of their ill gotten gains?
They also seem to regularly perjure themselves in court and lie to POPLA, can they not be prosecuted for this?
These forums help a few people successfully fight their individual cases which is laudable, but they don't seem to get to the heart of the matter, they just fight the flames rather than putting out the fire. Could we collectively come up with a way to force them to act legally? How would one go about bringing such a case?
What I want to know is whether there is a case to get Parking Eye and other PPCs prosecuted for fraud. I am no lawyer, so I don't know exactly what law they could be charged with, but it seems to me that their entire business model is fraudulent, at least as far as "free" car parks are concerned.
My logic is this:
- they are claiming the charges as a pre-estimate of loss
- since they do not charge for parking, the only money they receive is from charges *
- in order for this to commercially viable, the charge must include an element of profit
- therefore the charge is by definition not a recovery of loss
- they have failed dozens of times to justify the pre-estimate of loss in POPLA adjudications and in court
So they knowingly send out hundreds of unjustified invoices, and harass people until they pay. This must surely be illegal. And that's before you get to the underhand tricks they play re signage, mimicking official penalty charge notices and so on. Things like that are subjective grey areas, but surely sending invoices you know to be false is pretty black and white. Its not too far removed from a "Nigerian prince" email scam.
* this is a potential weak point if the landowner pays them to manage the site, but its my understanding that they usually offer their services for free, in fact paying the landowner a chunk of their ill gotten gains?
They also seem to regularly perjure themselves in court and lie to POPLA, can they not be prosecuted for this?
These forums help a few people successfully fight their individual cases which is laudable, but they don't seem to get to the heart of the matter, they just fight the flames rather than putting out the fire. Could we collectively come up with a way to force them to act legally? How would one go about bringing such a case?
