How YOUR personal details are being sold to private parking firms to hunt you down for unpaid tickets
PERSONAL details of 1.74million British drivers have been sold this year to private parking firms hunting down unpaid tickets.
More than 19,000 tickets a DAY are being issued with "bully-boy" companies buying up records from the DVLA to chase motorists.
It's prompted MPs to call for action on the self-regulated parking industry that's "hounding innocent motorists and milking them for money".
Data is used by companies to track down owners for alleged infringement of rules in private car parks and chase fines of up to £100.
And the RAC Foundation revealed a ticket is issued once every 4.5 seconds - the equivalent to 19,173 a day.
ParkingEye Ltd bought the largest amount of records - more than 570,000 in the first quarter of 2017/2018.
Smart Parking collected 125,000 with Euro Car Parks netting 118,000.
The DVLA charges £2.50 per car and generates around £1.5m a month from selling-on details but claims it makes no profit with the fee, stating it is a purely an administrative charge.
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To access the data, parking firms must be members of a trade association, either the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC).
The latest figures mark a 64 per cent increase on the same period last year and if the current pace continues more than seven million records will be sold by the end of the year - up from 4.7m in 2016/17.
MP Sir Greg Knight, tabled a private members' bill, calling for a crack down on rogue business and the introduction of a single code of practice for all firms.
He said: "These figures are concerning. It is highly unlikely there has been a massive increase in bad parking.
"Instead bully-boy parking firms are hounding innocent motorists and milking them for money.
"We need to put rogue firms out of businesses. There are many private parking companies who are playing fair.
How to appeal a parking ticket
NO matter who has issued the parking ticket it is possible to fight it if you think you’ve been unfairly charged. Although, it’s important to keep in mind that the fine may increase if your appeal is unsuccessful.
If a Penalty Charge Notice was issued by the local council, unless you have grounds to appeal, you should pay up. Here you have broken the law. The penalty is just that – a genuine penalty or fine – not just a “charge”.
If you do have a compelling, or very persuasive reason for appealing, the council can use its discretion to decide whether to cancel the notice. Drivers will have to complain to the council in writing, with any witness statements or photographs included.
If you get a parking ticket from a private company, find out what company has issued the ticket.
Gather evidence if you plan to appeal, for example, take photographs to show unclear signs or anything else that might be relevant. Keep all your correspondence with the company and hold off paying the fine if you want to challenge it.
Most of the big, private car park operators are part of the adjudication scheme, Popla (Parking on Private Land Appeals). If Popla takes the driver's side, the charge is cancelled. If the driver’s appeal is refused, the company can carry on seeking payment and ultimately has the option of taking the vehicle owner to the small claims court.
"But others are clearly making a killing out of pursuing and persecuting motorists who have done nothing wrong."
The surge in ticketing comes after the ban on clamping on private land, which came into force in 2012, and two years after the coalition government consulted on possible changes to the private parking industry.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "Self-regulation of the private parking sector has not worked.
"Five years after the ban on clamping, private parking has turned into an industry worth hundreds of millions of pounds with many firms relying on enforcement as their only way of making money.
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"No wonder the DVLA is now being inundated annually with many millions of requests for vehicle keeper data so drivers can be sent penalty tickets on often dubious grounds."
A ParkingEye spokesman said: ‘We operate with clear, standard and proportionate procedures which follow the British Parking Association’s code of practice.
"We encourage people who have received a parking charge to appeal if they think they should not have received a charge."