Parking Ticket Expert, Barrie Segal calls for Investigation into The Traffic Enforcement Centre in Northampton

Parking Ticket Expert, Barrie Segal calls for Investigation into The Traffic Enforcement Centre in Northampton.

Barrie Segal, the UK’s leading expert on parking tickets has called for an urgent investigation into The Traffic Enforcement Centre at the County Court Traffic Bulk Centre in Northampton.

The centre processes court summons for recovery of parking ticket and congestion charge fines.

Barrie, the Founder of www.AppealNow.com™, says “The Traffic Enforcement Centre merely acts as a rubber stamp issuing summons for the recovery of fines without examining the validity of the parking ticket or congestion charge penalty. In addition I am very concerned that they are illegally rejecting statutory declarations for being submitted out of time when they are in fact correctly issued. They can’t even get the spelling correct on their website!”

Barrie believes that motorists are being treated unfairly and just paying up when they see a court order for recovery little realising that the summons may not have been dealt with properly

Barrie says “I am concerned that the Traffic Enforcement Centre acts is acting as an extension of local authorities and Transport for London. There needs to be a full investigation now”.

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Note for Editors:

1. Barrie Segal, the leading parking ticket expert in the UK, set up the AppealNow.com website to help people appeal incorrect parking tickets and lodge appeals over the internet. The process takes just 4½ minutes compared to the normal 30 -45 minutes it would otherwise take.

2. The Centre’s Website states”Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC), is a registration point for Local Authorities (LA's) that have de-criminalised on-street parking charges. Vehicle Emmision penalties, London Road User Charging (Congestion Charging) and Bus Lane Encroachment penalties for London Boroughs are also recovered through TEC. Local Authorities send registration data by either floppy disk or via a modem and receive the guarantee that, following computer validation, the registration will be effected on the day of receipt. Authority to produce the Order for Recovery is given the same day to the LA. Our staff involvement is split between two areas; The first is dealing with calls via our dedicated telephone helpdesk, assisting respondents with TEC procedures and where nessesary [they can’t spell either] sending relevant forms. The second area is the processing of the relevant Statutory Declarations and applications to file the Statutory Declaration out of time [There appears to be a real problem here – Barrie Segal]. Enforcement is undertaken by the pursuing Authority by way of warrant of execution. Local Authorities use private bailiffs to execute the warrant. TEC processed some 1.7 million registrations during 2004/05

3. Barrie Segal, a Chartered Accountant, has also uncovered numerous parking ticket scams (URL http://www.appealnow.com/main.asp?sitepages=MEDIA) including the infamous “Ghost Ticket” and has appeared on BBC and Independent television and radio. He provided technical information to the BBC's groundbreaking "Whistleblowers" documentary on parking ticket scams as well as providing evidence to the London Assembly's review of parking and the Parliamentary Transport Committee on decriminalised parking.

4. Barrie conducts a parking ticket phone-in programme on Talksport Radio.

Contact Details:

Barrie Segal: e-mail press@appealnow.com