Cowboy parking firms facing CRACKDOWN after dishing out £100 fines for trivial offences
COWBOY parking firms face a crackdown after emerged the number of fines handed out by private companies rose by more than two-thirds in a year.
The Government is looking at proposals to outlaw the devious tactics unscrupulous firm sue to maximise profits with some fines now as much as £100.
One of these ploys is known as “ghost ticketing” and is when a warden takes a picture of a car's windscreen with a parking ticket stuck on before removing it so the driver unwittingly misses the payment deadline and is liable for even more money.
But with such a sharp increase in the number of fines being dished there are growing calls for appeals to be regulated by an independent panel and for a cap on maximum fines.
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We need to have a fairer, more transparent and consistent enforcement system
Sir Greg Knight MP, who has put forward the bill to keep parking companies on a tighter leash, told the Times: “Self-regulation hasn't worked and we need to put this on a statutory footing to stop motorists being ripped off.
“We need to have a fairer, more transparent and consistent enforcement system.”
Companies that fall foul of the rules will be prevented from accessing the DVLA database which holds around 40 million drivers' records.
Access to this database has been crucial for parking companies, with data for 1.74million vehicles dished out last year.
A decade ago, that figure stood at just 300,000.
Parking companies cannot fine individuals, but by entering a car park customers start a contract with the firm, which they are in breach of if they break the car park's rules.
A private parking firm slapped a couple with £10,000 worth of fines for parking below their luxury apartment in their designated space.
Alyssha Harriot and Konrad Koscinsci moved into the gated community nearly two years ago but have since racked up more than 100 parking tickets.
They insist their tenancy agreement grants them free use of the car park but are still repeatedly ticketed.
