Private parking fines hit £150m One company alone, Parking Eye, received details of 540,000 motorists alone last year. These companies, who were given enhanced powers in return for the ban on clamping on private land in October, have come under frequent attack from motoring organisations. They are employed by landowners including hospitals, shopping centres and motorway service areas to control motorists and police parking. The £150 million they are estimated at having generated compares with an annual fine income of £330 million accrued by town halls in a year. While it is accepted that the current arrangements are preferable to clamping which was outlawed by the Government last year, motoring groups believe safeguards are insufficient and that fines have been handed out for spurious reasons. Last year The Daily Telegraph reported the case of a motorist who was fined by a company acting on behalf of a motorway service area after he pulled off to sleep for a few hours in the early hours of the morning rather than risk nodding off at the wheel. Drivers have also been fined for spending too long in the car park of some fast food outlets or shopping centres. "The majority of motorists believe they are using car parks, when they are being regulated almost as if it was someone's drive," said an AA spokesman. Car park operators must act fairly. All too often signs are too small and misleading and a tired driver on a motorway is hardly likely to get out his car in the early hours of the morning to inspect a dimly-lit sign outlining the intricate details of a contract when all they want to do is sleep. Most drivers who receive a private parking ticket through the post regard them as a scam and they are also very surprised that a government agency gives this vehicle keeper information to companies by the million for a fee. Last year more than 20 companies were banned from accessing the DVLA database for periods of up to three months for an array of code breaches, such as displaying inadequate warning signs at car parks they patrolled. However a spokesman for the BPA defended the industry, saying that it had set up an independent appeals service which had upheld cases brought by nearly 60 per cent of drivers. The DVLA also denied cashing in on motorists by charging companies to provide the drivers" details. We do not make a profit on this service - the fee merely covers the cost of processing the applications. A spokesman added that only active members of the BPA were entitle to receive and use the information to pursue parking penalties.