Parking cowboys prey on 5m drivers a year... with help from DVLA
‘The increase is eye watering’
‘BULLY boy’ parking firms have bought details of almost five million vehicles from the DVLA over the past year to hound drivers for fines.
Motoring group RAC estimates that almost £500million in penalties may have been issued by parking companies in 2016/17 after obtaining motorists’ records.
The firms have been helped by the DVLA, which makes almost £1million a month from selling motorists’ information to firms for £2.50 a vehicle.
Parking companies have been criticised by MPs for targeting motorists using hospital car parks or visiting High Street stores. Drivers have com- plained about being fined up to £100 for returning to their cars a few minutes late, or after being unable to buy a ticket because of a faulty machine.
In extreme cases, families have faced financial ruin after unfair parking fines have resulted in County Court judgments against them.
But despite promises by ministers to crack down, some parking companies have ramped up efforts to catch out motorists.
The records of more than 4.7million drivers were bought in 2016/17 – almost one million more than in the previous year.
The DVLA collected £11.75million in fees from parking firms, up from £9.2million.
The RAC described the huge increase in the trade of drivers’ information as ‘ eye watering’, while MPs urged ministers to stop parking firms obtaining information from the DVLA.
The number of vehicle details requested has risen by three million since legislation was introduced in 2012. The Protec- tion of Freedoms Act banned clamping on private land, such as hospital car parks, except in exceptional circumstances.
But the law also meant that parking firms only have to establish who is the registered keeper of the vehicle, not who was driving it at the time – triggering a surge in the number of details purchased from the DVLA.
The most prolific of the private firms is ParkingEye, owned by outsourcing firm Capita which was recently exposed by the Daily Mail for using ruthless tactics to collect licence fees for the BBC. It obtained more than 1.5million vehicle records in the past year, almost five times more than any other firm and up 27 per cent on the previous year.
The firm operates thousands of car parks on behalf of pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, shopping centres and hospitals.
Three years ago ministers promised to investigate parking abuses. But after publishing responses to a consultation last May the Department for Communities and Local Government has failed to take any action.
Robert Flello, a Labour member of the Commons transport committee, said: ‘Parking firms which resort to bully boy tactics should be blocked from obtain- ing drivers’ details from the DVLA.’ A Government spokesman said it was committed to reforming unfair parking practices and added that the £2.50 DVLA fee covered costs and did not make a profit.
A ParkingEye spokesman said: ‘ParkingEye does everything it can to ensure we act on correct motorist contact information.
‘We strongly refute any suggestion that we operate inappropriately. We encourage people to appeal if they think they should not have received a parking charge, and instructions about how to do this are on all communications and on our website.’