I paid £72 for 3 days of parking in London. NCP wouldn't let me leave and come back without paying AGAIN.
That sent me down a rabbit hole that exposed something much darker.
National Car Parks (NCP) isn't just running dodgy car parks. They've built a £186 million empire on tactics that should be illegal but aren't. Physical barrier "malfunctions" that trap customers for 95 minutes. Apps that mysteriously stop working and generate £500 in fines. Terms buried so deep even lawyers can't find them.
But here's what made my blood boil: The government had a law ready to stop them. It passed Parliament in 2019. Got published in February 2022. Then NCP and other parking companies sued... and won. The law has been "temporarily withdrawn" for 3 years.
While MPs call this "legalised extortion," NCP makes 321,000+ requests annually for driver details from the DVLA. The DVLA's approval rate? 100%. Not a single request rejected. Ever. They make £30 million a year selling our data.
This isn't incompetence. It's design.
Welcome to Britain's parking racket, where holding your car hostage is a business model, and the government is in on it.
SOURCES & EVIDENCE:
Court records: National Car Parks Ltd v Revenue And Customs [2019]
Parliamentary debates: Hansard, May 2025
Freedom of Information requests: DVLA data releases 2008-2024
Customer testimonies: 265+ verified reviews
The Fine Print: Reading corporate contracts so you don't have to die from them.
#NCP #ParkingScam #UKCorruption #TheFineprint #Parking #ConsumerRights #CorporateGreed #Investigation
