Having recently received two letters from a law firm in Belgium relating to a parking ticket in Brussels in 2004 I wonder if anyone has any suggestions about how they were able to find out my adrress via my registration number. The DVLA say they have not released my details to any third party and so have P and O ferries. Which other data bases might they have used? Is the release of this information to third parties (eg people abroad)forbidden under the Data Protection Act 1998?
I was warned when I was in Germany working when driving or parking to watch what I was doing because the german police will pursue a fine if it is a EU car I had a hire car but they had a copy of my drivers licence also for police use they told me! I guess it is the same in Belgium by the looks of it!
____(OO=[II]=OO)___ (O=0000=O)
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes.
Information held about your registration number can be released to anyone with a reasonable reason to access it - i.e. private car parking enforcement companies or the police forces of EU states.
Oh yeah in Brussels the ticket inspectors on the underground carry guns, so you should be thankful they've just sent a letter
Hi as the last post said the DVLA will give your details to anybody with reasonable need. I've herd of this letter before on What Car? and there is nothing that the Belgium lawers can do AT THE MOMENT. No crime has been committed in England so it wont go to court, they are chancers don't even reply, but write a stinking letter to the DVLA asking why they gave yuor details out be specific and do it under a Freedom of information reguest then look up Data Protection Act, they could have broken it you can't sue them and get compo but its about time they were stood up and counted.
Surely you should be more interested in paying the parking ticket and forgetting about it, than trying to find out how they tracked you down.
Did it ever occur that if you had simply paid the ticket you would not now have lawyers writing to you? Sorry to be blunt, but if you have a parking ticket from 2004 then maybe you should have paid it in 2004.
The DVLA will give out your address to ANYONE willing to pay a few quid - think it is £4.
All they need do is explain why, and the DVLA are not known for either checking the reasons or caring beyond the extra revenue.
If you don't want to pay, a letter akin to policeman or rich people's defence, that they must be mistaken, it most certainly wasn't you or your car, should do it.
Unless you are filmed getting in and out of the car, they will not pursue it through our courts.
However, unlike the police and celebrities above who get away with it hook, line and sinker and can still travel freely - if you ever go back to Belgium you will be lynched.
