Michelle's story

Michelle received a letter of demand for an alleged private parking fine from a parking company called "Australian National Car Parks". Michelle wasn't the driver and knew from TV reports that she didn't have to pay this fine. So she wrote a letter to Australian National Car Parks and denied liability for the fine and asked them to cease writing to her.

Some time later, Michelle started receiving letters of demand from a debt collection company called Australian Recoveries and Collections. This worried Michelle a little, but she was consoled by the fact that ARC could not take her to court as they (ARC) had not purchased the debt.

The final straw for Michelle came, though, when she received a letter for demand from "Force Legal". The letter threatened legal action, and conjured in Michelle's mind, worrying images of her having to appeal in court and defend herself. However, Michelle then Googled "Force Legal" and discovered that Force Legal is actually partially owned by business interests connected with Australian National Car Parks itself. That is, the owners of Australian National Car Parks helped create a law firm and in doing so could send out letters of demand on a law firm's name to scare people into paying a debt.

Further enquiries about Force Legal also led to Michelle learning that the debt collection company ARC, was also owned by Australian National Car Parks business interests. So here was the one company - Australian National Car Parks - possessing some level control in sending sending out letters of demand in the names of three different companies:

• • Australian National Car Parks

  • Australian Recoveries and Collections

  • Force Legal

Michelle decided to ignore all future letters of demand from all three companies.