Hospitals urged to sack parking pirate squads after it emerges three-quarters of trusts use them to patrol car parks. Daily Mail

  Firms targeting patients with extortionate 'fines' during appointments

  Trusts also using private companies to hound patients for payments

  Government announces formal investigation into parking cowboys

  Politicians call on hospitals to sack companies issuing unfair tickets

Hospitals last night faced huge pressure to sack pirate parking squads after it emerged more than three quarters of NHS  trusts are using them to police their car parks.

Rogue firms have been given free rein across the majority of the country, allowing them to target patients with extortionate ‘fines’ during their medical appointments.

A Daily Mail survey found many trusts are also using private companies to hound patients for payments, with threats of court hearings.

Politicians and campaigners last night called on hospitals to sack firms found to be issuing unfair tickets.

Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: ‘If they are behaving in an unscrupulous way, targeting the most vulnerable patients, then they should be stripped of their contracts.’ 

The former GP and Tory MP for Totnes added: ‘Patients may end up with fines for something that is no fault of their own. I don’t think the NHS can wash their hands of responsibility.’

Conservative MP Andrew Percy, also on the committee, described tactics used in NHS car parks as ‘totally unacceptable’, adding: ‘The problem the trusts have is that they have to upgrade the parking facilities and if they don’t charge it will come out of the NHS budget.

‘But what they are doing is contracting this work out and then washing their hands of it.’

Campaigner Roger Goss, from Patient Concern, added: ‘We understand they are desperate to raise more money but this is a disreputable way of going about it.’

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Further Reading:

We will curb the parking cowboys, says Cabinet Minister: Victory for Mail campaign as official probe is launched into bully boys, Daily Mail

We will curb the parking cowboys, says Cabinet Minister: Victory for Mail campaign as official probe is launched into bully boys, Daily Mail

 Eric Pickles

  Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said rogue firms will not be tolerated, and launched Government investigation

  Parking squads across the country issue official-looking £100 fines, in some cases targeting the elderly and disabled

  Senior adviser to David Cameron today said the abuse by parking firms is worse than the PPI scandal

  Founders of parking firms have become rich from motorists' misery - including a CBE adviser to John Prescott 

Parking cowboys who threaten drivers with huge ‘fines’ will face a Government investigation, in a victory for the Daily Mail.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said ‘bully boy’ tactics would not be tolerated and rogue firms could be prosecuted.

The probe was announced as a leading adviser to David Cameron said abuse by private parking squads was worse than the PPI scandal.

Over the past week, the Daily Mail has revealed the aggressive tactics used by firms to coerce hundreds of thousands of drivers into paying inflated charges.

The parking squads issue official-looking £100 tickets, often to drivers just a few minutes late returning to their cars. Elderly and disabled people have been specifically targeted at hospitals and High Street stores.

Meanwhile, the firms’ founders have become multi-millionaires on the back of motorists’ misery. As the Mail reveals today, they include David Taylor CBE – who was a special adviser to John Prescott when he was Deputy Prime Minister.

Last night, Mr Pickles said: ‘We will stand up to rogue practices by corporate bully-boys, and we will be investigating the clear abuses that the Daily Mail has identified.

'It is not acceptable for any firm to be making money through misleading marketing or aggressive enforcement tactics.’

He warned major High Street firms they could also be breaking the law by employing parking cowboys and said they risk boycotts from consumers.

Mr Pickles said the Government was already ‘taking firm action to rein in the over-zealous town hall parking wardens who make life a misery for local shops, undoing Labour’s war on the motorist’.

Ros Altmann, a government adviser and pensions expert, compared the abuses to the PPI scandal, in which customers were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Ticket the old, they'll always pay: How the ruthless parking cowboys tell their wardens to exploit the vulnerable Daily Mail Parking Campaign

The parking ticket fat cats - one's a chum of Prezza and two drive Aston Martins. Meet the men who've made millions from motorists' misery 

Mac on... ruinous hospital car parking fines Daily Mail

'Oh dear. That'll cost you. Visiting time ended three minutes ago'

Ticket the old, they'll always pay: How the ruthless parking cowboys tell their wardens to exploit the vulnerable Daily Mail Parking Campaign

  War veterans, great-grandmothers and vulnerable hospital patients are singled out in 'unjust and immoral' practice 

  Dozens of elderly drivers tell Mail how they are being threatened and pursued by bailiffs over minor parking queries

  Many have fallen victim to a string of 'dirty tricks' with companies said to use intentionally small warnings on signs

  Scroll down to print off your free 'Get Lost Parking Pirates' sign, and for details on how to receive a sticker by post

‘There is a veil of secrecy about the business practices of private car park operators that needs to be lifted. 

THE BULLY TACTICS

·         Unclear or missing signage on parking machines, making it difficult to buy the correct ticket

·         Overly complicated pay machines

·         Hefty fines for mistakes such as entering the wrong registration details into pay-and-display machines

·         Wardens allegedly instructed to never give information about the motorist’s rights to appeal 

·         Information about how to appeal is written on tickets in tiny font, making it difficult for elderly people to read

·         Tiny signs warning against leaving car parks to get change to buy a ticket

·         Penalising drivers for resting too long at motorway service stations – despite the risks of driving when tired

‘What’s needed is independent and effective regulation of the private car parking industry, which puts the consumer interest first.’

AA president Edmund King added: ‘We think some of the signage is really confusing in order to catch out elderly drivers as they are an easy target. 

‘The companies know they won’t appeal if threatened with bailiffs and legal letters. It is unacceptable these companies are targeting them.’

Claims that wardens are hounding the elderly come after the Mail revealed hundreds of thousands of drivers are being ‘fined’ by private parking firms, often with little reason and without legal authority.

Signs are often difficult to make out and payment machines can be complicated, involving keying the driver’s number plate into a computer system.

Whistleblower Tony Taylor, who worked for one of the firms until December, said bosses told wardens to focus on ticketing pensioners.

The company – UK Parking Control – runs car parks for NHS hospitals, Royal Mail and a number of high street shops and restaurants, including McDonalds and Marks & Spencer.

Mr Taylor said: ‘The wardens are told to target the elderly and disabled. The elderly are likely to pay.

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Further Reading:

The wardens on £3k bonuses urged to issue scores of parking tickets daily, target vulnerable people and take photographs at angles to make offences seem worse

The wardens on £3k bonuses urged to issue scores of parking tickets daily, target vulnerable people and take photographs at angles to make offences seem worse Daily Mail

While working at the car park at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (pictured), Tony Taylor was told by his bosses to get wardens to focus on the hospitals’ cancer wards

  Cowboy parking wardens earn up to £3,000 a month in bonuses, it is claimed

  Leaked emails show bosses at firms push staff to issue scores of tickets daily

  Wardens allegedly using a vile array of 'dirty tricks' to boost their pay

  Some have been ordered to target patients outside cancer wards knowing they are likely to be distracted and late returning to car  

The penalties – which are often issued unfairly and without legal authority – are followed up with intimidating letters from bailiffs and unregistered legal firms threatening court action.

Last night, a whistleblower claimed the firms:

■Give staff huge financial incentives to issue as many tickets as possible. They penalise those who do not give out enough,

■ Target the ill and vulnerable, with ‘no concern if they are disabled – or even dying’,

■Hide in their cars so drivers do not realise they are on patrol,

■Issue ‘ghost tickets’, where parking notices are photographed on car windscreens before being removed so drivers do not know they have been given a ticket and later have to pay an inflated fee,

■Take photographs at angles to make offences seem worse than they are and make sure blue badges issued to disabled drivers are out of shot.

The whistleblower’s claims are supported by research from the Citizens Advice Bureau, which has been inundated with complaints over rip-off penalties.

While working at the car park at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, Mr Taylor was told by his bosses to get wardens to focus on the hospitals’ cancer wards. Mr Taylor has correspondence which lifts the lid on the threats made by management to staff.

Read more here:

Further Reading

Cancer charities: Stop these bullies! Bosses join Mail's fight to rid Britain of the scourge of car parking pirates