TIME TO CURB THE CAR PARK PIRATES

Scots firm boasts of making massive 75pc of profits from penalty notices They cash in with bullyboy tactics... without independent appeals process Calls for rogue industry to face crackdown with Holyrood laws

A WHOPPING 75 per cent of a private parking giant’s revenue comes from punitive fines which prey ruthlessly on motorists making honest mistakes.

Smart Parking’s entire business model is founded not on income from paying customers but on clobbering those who fail to adhere to inflexible and overly complex operating procedures, a Mail investigation has found.

We have uncovered a catalogue of intimidation and deceit in a shambolic industry which mercilessly pursues motorists for up to 18 months to pay parking penalties which may have no legal merit at all. Smart Parking and ParkingEye are two of the biggest and most

complained about private operators in Scotland. While the former is on camera openly admitting threequarters of its revenue comes from penalty notices, the latter warns of credit agency referrals if customers ignore their penalties. In fact credit ratings are unaffected by unpaid private parking charges.

Appeals turned down include many from those who have paid in full but mistakenly entered a zero instead of an ‘O’ when keying in their car numberplate. Others shown no sympathy have overstayed their allotted time by seconds, sometimes because traffic jams stopped them moving.

Last night, politicians and motoring groups reacted with outrage to the revelation that Smart Parking made 75 per cent of its money from the controversial penalties. Will Dawson, a Dundee city councillor

‘This makes my blood boil’

and transport expert who himself received a penalty notice after using Smart Parking’s most notorious car park in Perth, said: ‘This makes my blood boil that they can get away with it. The system they’ve got is overly complex, it’s prone to error … and their appeals process is, in my view, non-existent.’

The RAC said ‘underhand tactics’ used by some private parking companies to intimidate and threaten drivers had left them with a ‘dire reputation’.

Head of external affairs Pete Williams added: ‘The suggestion they could be making up to 75 per cent of their revenue from penalties suggests they have questionable business models.’

Private parking firms – often using Big Brother-style numberplate recognition systems – have multiplied in the UK in the last decade, taking over traditional car parks such as the Kinnoull Street multi-storey in Perth, operated by Smart Parking.

An on-camera presentation filmed earlier this year by Smart Parking bosses reveals the number of penalties issued by the firm has doubled in a year and now makes up threequarters of revenue. Smart Parking chief financial officer Richard Ludbrook says parking breach notices are continuing to ‘grow rapidly’ and that in the space of three months his company issued 91,538 of them.

He states: ‘Revenue in the parking management division makes up 90 per cent of the group’s revenue – and 75 per cent of revenue in the parking services division is made up of parking breach notices.’

Thousands of those are ignored by motorists who do not believe they are enforceable. But, as the Mail exclusively revealed this month, a sheriff has ordered a Dundee woman to pay £24,500 to a private parking company whose penalty notices she had repeatedly ignored.

Carly Mackie had ripped up more than 200 notices from the firm in the belief that it had no right to fine her for parking outside her parents’ rented flat in Dundee.

Now both ParkingEye and Smart Parking cite that case in their literature as evidence their charges are enforceable in Scotland.

Those pursued by Smart Parking include a 90-year-old woman from Perthshire who entered the letter O for her registration number instead of a zero. It resulted in a £100 fine. Another was George Taylor, 80, from Dalgety Bay, Fife, who was bombarded with demands to pay sums up to £160 for months after using the Kinnoull Street car park in Perth. He had fallen foul of a faulty machine on his first evening out after the death of his wife Sybil. A third victim, Archie Wilson, 73, from Dundee, received a £90 demand after overstaying his allotted hour by just 27 seconds.

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, who is in the process of producing a Members Bill to regulate private parking, said he had received hundreds of complaints from constituents about the Kinnoull Steet car park. He added: ‘If you believe the views of industry insiders, the installation of an overly complicated system is no happy accident. Private parking companies are dependent on revenue from fines and any system that hands out more tickets will naturally push up profits.’

In a statement, Smart Parking said: ‘As members of the British Parking Association, we abide fully by its code of conduct and operate a clear and fair independently audited appeals procedure... the revenues we make from car park management are in line with other car park operators.’

Comment – Page 16

‘More tickets will push up profits’