TONY HETHERINGTON: £155 parking fine is the real crime!

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s chief investigator. He battles the reader’s corner, reveals the truth that lies behind closed doors, and wins victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how to contact him.

MM writes: I received a letter from collection agency ZZPS Limited, acting on behalf of parking company APCOA. The letter demanded £155 saying I had parked without paying at Gillingham railway station in Dorset. Parked there for about 15 minutes while picking up my niece from her train.

My Disabled Blue Badge was on the dashboard and I was parked in a disabled parking space. I am over 80 and receive a minimum pension, which I am very grateful for, but I find it outrageous to be told I have to pay a £70 ‘administration charge’ on top of the £85 fine itself.

Tony Hetherington replies: There is much outrageous about what happened to you, but when I read the letter from ZZPS, the part that you were threatened with criminal prosecution in a Magistrates’ Court stood out.

Normally, allegations of failure to pay a parking fee are treated like any debt in the district court system because it is a civil misdemeanor, not a crime. But ZZPS is well aware that railway parking garages are special. They are considered part of the rail system, so violators may face criminal charges for trespassing.

Who can afford to take this threat lightly, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the alleged parking violation?

You say you didn’t even get a chance to pay the £85 fine before it skyrocketed to £155. The first thing you knew about all this, you say, was the arrival on your doorstep of the threat of the Freelancers to kill you to prosecute.

Gillingham Station is run by South Western Railway but the car park is operated by APCOA who told me you had exceeded the 20 minute allowance for drop off or pick up at the station.

That said, APCOA had already realized that mail disruption meant you had not received the original £85 demand. It canceled the claim in full and as you had already paid it has reasonably decided to give you a full refund of the £155 you paid.

Gary Osner of ZZPS

South Western Railway told me that anyone with a Blue Badge can drop off and pick up passengers for free within 20 minutes. But so can any other driver.

There are a small number of disabled parking spaces at the station, but you have to pay to park there. Your blue badge meant nothing to the railroad company.

I reached out to Gary Osner, the owner of debt collection agency ZZPS, to invite his comments. I got a reply that the company considered the case closed.

When I pressed a comment about threatening to prosecute a disabled driver in his 80s, Osner’s unsigned response was, “We understand that the actual facts do not lend themselves to the story you wish to publish.” However, as far as we have been advised by the parking operator, the case has been resolved and does not warrant the libelous spin you wish to publish.”

ZZPS continued: ‘There has been no misconduct on our behalf and we are providing this information to you in good faith and in the interest of your understanding. However, we do not consent to this email or any part of it being quoted in your news item.”

Well Gary, how did that work out for you?

I did wonder why Osner was so touchy when his client APCOA was so much more sensible and diplomatic. Osner specializes in collecting parking debts to the extent that he serves on the board of the industry association, the British Parking Association.

He has said, “I came up with the ‘administration fee’ model of debt collection because the ticket value was so low that no one would make money off it. Parking is business and after all, business is about money.’

And that explains why your initial fine of £85 was added another £70. It wasn’t Gary Osner’s part, it was his invention.

Our £6,000 cruise was a Greek tragedy

Mrs MS writes: We booked a two week holiday with Imagine Cruising. This included flying to Greece to collect the ship there, but when we got to Gatwick we were on the plane for nearly four hours and were told the flight had been cancelled.

Tony Hetherington replies: The cancellation was bad, but then things got worse. Imagine if Cruising told you to spend the night in an airport hotel and it would reimburse you later. The next day you were told to take a taxi to Heathrow and spend another night there, again with the promise of a refund.

The next day you managed to fly to Heraklion, with Imagine telling you to spend three days there and then take a flight to Athens to pick up the ship. But in Heraklion, you and three other couples couldn’t find transportation because Imagine forgot to arrange it.

Eventually you got to the ship and the cruise itself was fine, but after spending £6,000 on the whole package you didn’t expect all the extra costs, then having to email and call repeatedly to try and get the promised reimbursement to get.

Imagine Cruising told me it paid £1,500 to get you on the first possible flight from Heathrow, but also apologized saying the need to reimburse you for extra costs you incurred was ‘miscommunicated’ was within the company.

Immediately after I got in touch, Imagine paid you £662 to cover all your costs, followed by almost £700 to compensate for the delayed flight.

If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.