Parking firms flout new rules to hit drivers

PARKING enforcement companies are still "conning" drivers despite new controls on their activities, the AA warned yesterday.

Some companies are forcing drivers to pay parking tickets by threatening to get their addresses from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

But under new rules introduced this week, car parking ticketing companies must be full members of an approved operator scheme, administered by the British Parking Association, to trace vehicle owners via the DVLA.

Paul Watters, the AA's head of public affairs, said: "These companies depend on drivers paying the ticket quickly to avoid fuss and because they are intimidated by the threat of being chased by debt collectors who have been given the owner's home address by the DVLA. We hope that cowboy firms will either be pressured into giving up or signing up to and complying with the approved operator scheme."