G24 - CAR PARK COWBOYS

HOW TO DEAL WITH CAR PARK ENFORCER BULLY BOYS

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If you get a ticket or letter from parking "enforcers", there is no need to worry, and no need to pay. Relax and read on...

Westgate Leisure Park in Wakefield is an ideal place to take the kids - there's a large multi-screen cinema, Cineworld, and plenty of food outlets, including Pizza Hut. You can watch a film, go for a meal, then browse around the shops, but you have to cram all this into a maximum of three hours, then get out fast. If you don't manage it inside the three hour limit (as we didn't!) you can expect to receive one of these through the post:

SINCE 3rd APRIL 2006

LAST UPDATED 16 FEBRUARY 2012

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Scary! Or is it? Let's look closely at the veiled threats it contains, and see just how scary (or not!) this really is.

THE FACTS
It’s a "PARKING CHARGE NOTICE." It is not a parking fine. Fines are issued by the Police for offences on the public highway, and must be paid. This is a notice issued by a cowboy company on private land. It is a civil matter, and as such is not enforceable without a Court Order.

It makes threatening references to a "DEBT RECOVERY AGENCY". This is not to be confused with a bailiff, who is a Court-appointed official with power to seize your goods. A debt recovery agency has no legal power whatsoever. In this case, G24 Ltd use a firm called CCS COLLECT. This name is actually a trading name of… G24 Ltd! So they are threatening to forward the "debt" to themselves!

For a BAILIFF to visit your house for any reason, the following must happen first:
a) You must be taken to Court, and a
hearing must take place.
b) You must lose the case - the Judge will
make an award that you should pay.
c) You must fail to make the payment
directed by the Judge within the time
limit set (usually 28 days), or be 28
days late paying any instalment.
Only if all the above has happened, can a bailiff visit you and attempt to seize goods. Even then they can only seize goods to the value of the amount you have failed to pay.

In fact, it is not a DEBT at all - it is a "charge". A debt is when you breach an agreement signed by two parties, for example by not paying your electricity bill having used the electricity, or failing to make payments on a bank loan. This means the "parking charge" cannot be recorded on your Credit file, as Credit Reference Agencies only hold details of your performance at paying loans and credit agreements. The only organisation that will be aware of your "parking charge" is the firm that issued it. It is NOT a matter for Credit files or criminal records.

The letter mentions that an "OFFENCE" has been committed. No, it hasn't. At the very most, a breach of the terms of the car park has occurred. This is a civil matter, not an offence.

The letter has been sent to the registered keeper of the car. The so-called "offence" was committed by the driver, not necessarily the same person. Unlike Police law on the public highway, there is no legal obligation for the keeper to tell G24 who was driving, so don't tell them!

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I GET ONE OF THESE NOTICES?
Basically, G24 Ltd can do absolutely nothing. But they will try. There is no legal (and in my opinion, no moral) obligation to make these cowboys even richer by paying these "charges". This is the expected sequence of events:

1. They will send out a "Parking Charge Notice" with a "charge" of £95, and kindly offer to reduce this to £75 if you pay in 14 days. You should ignore this.

2. After about 14 days they will send you a "FINAL DEMAND", and let you know that it is too late to take advantage of the reduction to £75. As it happens, this "final demand" isn't final - there will be more to come, but you should ignore this letter.

3. The next stage is a "FORMAL NOTICE OF INTENDED COURT ACTION", issued by CCS Collect, which is another trading name of G24 Ltd. They have never ever taken anyone to Court. If they did try to take you to Court they would have to pay an upfront fee to the Court and then prove the following:
a) that the times shown on the notice are correct (ie that their clock is right),
b) that you did not leave and return during the time shown. The only way this can be proved is by showing the Court a
continuous video of your car staying in the car park for the whole of the time claimed. They will not be able to do this.
c) they have to prove who was driving at the time, impossible from the photograph provided. They can only issue a claim
against the driver, not the registered keeper,
d) to be in breach of a contract, you have to agree to it in the first place. Having signs around the car park is not enough
- they have to prove that you actually read the sign and understood it, before the alleged "offence" took place,
e) they have to prove that your "offence" actually cost the landlord of the property £95 - in other words, that they lost
£95 worth of trade by another customer being unable to find a parking space while you were committing the alleged
"offence". To do this, they would have to produce as a witness the customer who gave up trying to park, to testify
that they were going to spend at least £95.
You should ignore this letter also.

4. Next comes a "NOTICE OF INTENDED LEGAL ACTION", on paper without a letterhead, which looks amazingly like a Court Summons, except that it isn't. For the reasons above, they will never take legal action. You should also ignore this one.

5. Now they try a different angle. They send a "72 HOUR NOTICE OF A HOME VISIT". G24 have never visited anyone - it would be too much time and trouble. They are purely office-based and only send out threatening letters. They do not follow up their threats because they can't. The letter will claim that "the purpose of this visit is to obtain payment or to investigate your home situation". No one, except the Police and Courts, has a legal right to investigate anything to do with your home. If any debt collector turns up at your door you should simply refuse to let them in, and refuse to discuss anything with them. Ask them to leave immediately and never return. If they refuse to leave, call the Police. You should ignore this letter as well.

6. Then what happens? Absolutely nothing! You will never hear from them again, unless you commit another parking "offence" on G24 territory.

HOW DO G24 Ltd OPERATE?
They charge the landlord of the parking area for their services. The cash they collect from this enables them to install the cameras. Then they sit back and wait for the "offences" to roll in. The cameras have number plate recognition capability, and they match up all the cars arriving with the ones leaving to calculate how long they stayed.

When they spot an "offence", they pay the DVLA a fee of £2.50 to obtain the registered keeper's details. Then they print out the notice, put it in an envelope and post it. Total outlay = about £3. Even if everyone paid quickly and they only got the £75, it's still a profit of 2,400%. As long as at least 4 out of every 100 of their victims cough up the money, they are in profit. They can quite comfortably write off 96% of the charges issued. So they rely on pure intimidation. The more timid and vulnerable of their victims will be frightened, and pay up immediately. And those with a bit more confidence will just ignore them. They are, quite simply, bullies preying on the more vulnerable members of society.

SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Quite simply, ignore all their nasty letters. Don't respond in any way. They will give up after going through the sequence above.

You should also write to the manager of the store or cinema you were visiting, pointing out that G24 have conned them into driving away potential custom, and letting them know that you will not be spending your money there again unless they get rid of G24. And let them know that you will spread the word and ask your friends and family to boycott them also.

IS ALL THIS TRUE?
Yes, but don't just take my word for it. There's plenty of information about these scumbags all over the Internet. Just Google "G24" and see what comes up. But below are links to some of the more interesting sites.....

Finance expert Martin Lewis, has a website where you can read about the experiences of many other victims of G24's tactics, and just how hollow their threats really are. G24's director, Adrian King, is very good at obtaining your home address, but has opted not to include his own address in the Companies' House Register. But it appears in Martin Lewis' website. Click HERE to read how others have dealt with G24.

A similar company recently appeared on the BBC TV "Watchdog" programme. Click HERE to see a short clip.

And there's even more about Adrian King, his £75k Jaguar with personal number 66 AK, and some of the other scams he gets up to on HERE.

So, if ever you get a "Parking Charge Notice" from G24, or one of the many other cowboy car park "enforcers", just relax and ignore it. They will go away.

And, if you're wondering, we have not paid our "parking charge" and have no intention of doing so. We got our last letter from G24 in August 2011, and now they have gone away. Now another cowboy firm called UK CPS Ltd have tried to issue a charge of £100.00 for leaving a car on private land for five minutes! Time to start ignoring this one as well.......