Private spy cameras used to back up tickets after clamping banned on private land DVLA earned £1.4m in three months selling drivers details to private firms 2.3million drivers given paper fines by 'cowboy clampers' since the change But appeals service is struggling to keep up with tumult of contested tickets By Ray Massey, Transport Editor Menacing: Private companies have been posting fines through drivers' doors as they take parking matters into their own hands Motorists are facing a new menace after parking enforcement firms switched from clamping to issuing tickets backed up by spy cameras. Some 2.3million drivers have now been hit with paper fines after clamping on private land was banned last year. But so many are contesting the new penalties that the official parking appeals service is struggling to cope with the backlog. The AA said cowboy clampers have simply "moved their sharp practices to private parking enforcement." It says the new Parking on Private Land Appeals service (POPLA), set up a year ago to prevent abuses, "appears to be struggling to cope." In a report out today that exposes the scale of the problem, the AA revealed just 6,913 of the 13,611 appeals submitted by the end of August have been considered so far. Some 3,361 were decided in favour of parking firms, while drivers won 2,856 cases and the rest remain undecided. POPLA's own figures show that between October 2012 and March this year there were 1,537 appeals by motorists and 806 - more than half - were settled in their favour. The surge in tickets issued by firms comes 12 months after clampers were banned from operating in private car parks in England and Wales after a campaign by the Daily Mail and the AA. Enforcement firms have since switched to operating cameras with automatic number plate recognition to issue tickets to drivers through the post. The move has also helped to fill government coffers. In just three months this year, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency earned £1.4million by selling the details of more than half a million drivers to parking firms so they can be pursued for tickets. Today's report claims the "surge" in the number of parking charge notices are attracting complaints from "Edinburgh to the south coast of England." And it said there had been "a new and hard-line attitude by private enforcement firms." 'Free-for-all': AA president Edmund King hailed the end of 'extortionate' clamping but called for new regulations It added: "With clamps no longer an option now in England and Wales it was inevitable that the number of parking charge notices - private parking tickets - would increase." AA president Edmund King added: "We are pleased that after decades of clamper extortion their practices have largely been consigned to history. However, private parking enforcement remains unregulated and is a free-for-all when even firms signed up to a code of practice breach their own rules. Recent cases include that of Margaret Wilson, an NHS Trust administrator from Hayes in Middlesex, who received a £150 parking ticket - which breaches the £100 maximum recommended by the British Parking Association. She said she had seen no warning signs and felt "threatened and intimidated" into paying the £75 minimum within 14 days to the firm Civil Enforcement Limited. The DVLA earned £1.4million in three months this year selling drivers' information to private firms for fines In another case, a diabetic was fined for sleeping beyond the two-hour limit at a deserted motorway service area after concerns about his blood sugar level. The British Parking Association (BPA) confirmed that Civil Enforcement Ltd was one of its members but said the firm was "under investigation" for parking charges that breached its guidelines. However, the BPA admitted the guidelines were legally "unenforceable" and that tougher laws were needed to protect motorists. Civil Enforcement Ltd, which is registered to an address in Liverpool, was unavailable for comment.