Warning to drivers across Leicestershire over car parking fine scam

Councils have called on drivers to be wary of fake texts calling for payment of parking fines.

People across the county have reported receiving the message which tells they must pay immediately or face a lawsuit. The text also says the sender will notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to get the recipient’s vehicle banned from the road.

Councils say they would “never contact people by text to recover payments”.

Leicester City Council said it alone has received more than 30 reports of the scam from its residents.

Martin Fletcher, the city council’s highways director said: “We never contact people by text to recover payments. Penalty charge notices for parked vehicles are placed on the vehicle concerned and instructions are given in the notice regarding payment. In the case of moving traffic notices are sent by post.

“These texts ask people to input their car registration and name, and financial information, which we would never do. If you receive such a text you should block the sender and inform the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre, Action Fraud.”

Blaby District Council has also issued a warning to its residents, saying it too has received reports of residents receiving the texts. Councillor Les Phillimore, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, said: “We have received reports from residents receiving text messages pretending to be from a local council issuing parking fines. This is simply not something we do.

“The majority of users of our car parks park within the rules and pay for their time, but when we need to issue fines we will only ever do this by fixing Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) to the vehicle’s windscreen. If you receive a text or email apparently from the Council that you’re concerned about do not click on any links, please contact us so we can confirm if it is from us or not.”

A spokesman for Harborough District Council said it has not been alert to anyone receiving such messages in its area, but added the authority’s officers were aware of the scam. He continued: “We advise that the council would never contact someone via text regarding a Penalty Charge Notice.”

In Oadby and Wigston borough, the council said one report had been received and the resident was “advised to ignore and delete the message, and to report any further incident the police”. A spokeswoman added: “We would advise anyone else who receives the message to do the same, and stress that this is not how we communicate our parking fines. If any resident is ever in doubt about the legitimacy of a message claiming to be from [the council], they should call us directly and not click on any links contained within the message.”

A Charnwood Borough Council spokesman said: “We have received one report from a resident who has received a scam text message regarding a penalty fine. They have been advised to ignore the text message and contact their phone provider to report it. The Council has also informed other organisations of this report and will continue to advise residents and visitors who contact us about scam messages.”

“We are aware there is a scam circulating nationally and would advise anyone who receives a scam text message regarding paying a PCN to report it through their phone provider,” a spokesman for Leicestershire County Council said. “Leicestershire County Council does not send text messages out to request payment for a PCN.”

Isaac Occhipinti from the British Parking Association (BPA) said “No sector is immune from cybercrime and parking is no different. The sector is used to dealing with attempts to tamper with parking meters, from counterfeit coins to card skimming. However, fraudsters are becoming more and more sophisticated in their attempts to defraud innocent motorists. Our advice to motorists is, if you see something that you don’t trust or raises suspicion then always contact the parking operator or the authorities, who will be able to help you.”