A parking firm is offering people a tenner to shop drivers using a phone
app.
The firm which operates
car parks for
McDonalds, Halfords, Tesco and the NHS is handing out a £10 commission
to increase parking “fines” dished out to hard-pressed drivers.
All users have to do is take and upload a picture
of the parked car to UK Car Park Management, along with its
registration number.
Until now firms such as this have relied on
employing their own private traffic wardens or installing Automatic
Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.
It is the
latest move by the money-spinning private parking industry which has
been criticised for making huge sums from motorists over minor driving
misdemeanours.
Defiant CPM boss James Randall, 32, said: “The problem is not with the app but with drivers that do not respect people’s land.
“The photo uploaded to the app is just the evidence and every one is looked at by a member of staff before a ticket is printed.”
Users of the app are given “complete confidentiality” when using the app to report drivers and claim £10 for every paid
ticket.
Offending drivers are sent a letter demanding £60, which rises to £100 after 14 days without payment.
The
“quick and discreet” service lets any land or business owner register
online and allows them or their staff to start dishing out their own
parking charges.
The RAC
has blasted the scheme as a “recipe for disaster” and could lead to
fights between drivers and app users photographing their vehicles.
RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “This is wrong on so many levels it beggars belief.
“The
sharp practices of parking companies are already regularly called into
question with paid officials dishing out fines, but with members of the
public being financially encouraged to shop motorists who overstay, it’s
a recipe for disaster.
“This will cause total chaos by
undermining trust still further and may even lead to public order
offences between drivers and members of the public looking to earn a
quick £10.”
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “We
hoped that outlawing cowboy clampers would have got rid of these sharp
practices but it seems that some of the modern day highwaymen are alive
and well.
CPM was founded in
September 2010 by managing director James Randall, aged 32, and sales
director Lukhbir ‘Lucky’ Gohler, aged 31.
 |
| (Photo: Dave Hill / Daily Mirror) |
RAC
spokesman Simon Williams added: “This can only be seen as a
cost-cutting move from a private parking company trying to reduce its
employee overheads by incentivising the public to do the job instead.
“Surely this private parking company’s fees and fines are high enough to merit proper employees.”
Official-looking parking ‘charges’ on private land of usually around £100 are not legal fines but a bill for breach of contract.
CPM offers its “free” services to residential and commercial landowners by pocketing cash levied to motorists.
Prime
Minister Theresa May has been blamed for the law change which unleashed
the multi- million pound industry while serving as Home Secretary. Her
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 enabled private parking firms to launch
civil cases against a registered keeper via the County Courts in
England - even if they could not prove who was driving a vehicle.
The
law spawned soaring numbers of private parking firms requesting
information from the DVLA so they can chase motorists for fines.
Before then such tickets could be ignored.
Around
four million records of vehicle details were handed to parking
companies between 2016 and 2017 by the DVLA which pockets £10 million a
year in return for them.
For more in depth information please go to Source:
mirror.co.uk
