NCP Drive businesses out of town

Here we see the out of control 'bully-boy' tactics by NCP operators in Sunderland City centre.

Kafen is a well established coffee shop in Frederick Street in Sunderland. Access was denied to the rear of their shop and as they are opening on an evening now as Sunderland's first Tapas Bar they were forced to unload all the new stock at the front of their shop. The NCP tag team ignored the fact that unloading was taking place and ticketed the vehicle.

What is more sinister in all of this is the fact that NCP officials and its Chief Exceutive, Bob Macnaughton, are fully aware that Sunderland City Council does not have the correct Traffic Regulation Orders or signage for this street, and hundreds of other locations in the City, but they still continue to issue Penalty Charge Notices and the Council continues to accept money from motorists unaware of the massive legal flaws in Sunderland's Decriminalised Parking Enforcement regime.

As the Chief Executive of a company which was recently bought for £555million by 3i Investment Group Bob Macnaughton and his Sunderland Manager, Kelvin Gilderoy's excuse that 'we are only doing what the Council tell us to do' is not going to stand up in court when the prosecutions begin.
They have a corporate responsibility to check that they have lawful authority to issue and in the case of Sunderland there is ample evidence to show what a shambles the whole system is.

As for the case of Kafen's Phil Jones and his ticket...we have prepared his appeal...we have just received details of another vehicle which had been parked in exactly the same location (Neil Herron has 20 at the same location and Sunderland refuse to allow him to go to NPAS).

13th December 2005
Watson v City of Sunderland
Case No. SX 251

Mr Watson used the same defence as Neil Herron and the letter from NPAS states

'The Council have decided not to contest your appeal.
The Adjudicator has directed the Council to cancel your liability for those Penalty Charges.'

So there you have it. If you take on the Council then they back off as they know that they have no legal authority to issue tickets yet they still continue to ticket unsuspecting motorists. There is a Freedom of Information request in to the Council to establish how many other tickets have been issued in the street and why there has been no notice to NCP to desist from issuing.

It looks like fraud to me. Within a short space of time this will become a Police matter.