Jim Parke

Jim Parke is a director and owner of Parke Lawyers, director of Crown Collections and is closely associated with Care Park. As a lawyer in the law practice that provides legal services to Care Park, Jim Parke has been a driving force behind the letters of demand and legal threats that people have felt from their interactions with these three companies over the years.

You have probably come to this page as a result of a letter of demand you received from Care Park, Crown Collections, Parke Lawyers, or possibly Jim Parke himself. Essentially, this mob are all the same. They send a string of letters one after the other to try to convince you that your "debt" has moved to the next level, when it its actually just one big debt collection system masked under different names.

If you look at Jim Parke's profile that he stores on various websites, he tries to make himself look community minded. But when it comes to collecting so called "debts" he is not so community minded. It can go something like this. Your partner or adult children drive the family car that is registered in your name and park it in a car park somewhere where it gets photographed by Care Park staff. Care Park decides the car deserves a "fine" and so applies through the courts to get your name and address. They write to you six months later and of course you have no idea who was driving your car back then. So you advise Care Park, Crown Collections, Parke Lawyers and if necessary Jim Parke himself that you weren't the driver and can't remember who was driving because it was so long ago. Most other car park companies at this point would withdraw the fine as they know they will have trouble proving who was driving. But not Care Park, not Crown Collections, not Parke Lawyers, and not Jim Parke.

Jim Parke presents the friendly, community minded persona in public, but his emails and his staff and his firms legal threats are anything but friendly. And this is despite the fact that you don't owe Mr Parke any money as you weren't driving the car.

In October 2012, Jim Parke was elected onto Boroondara council. He is now Councillor Jim Parke. I guess the people who voted him in had not idea who he was at the time of the elections.

Its ironic that at almost exactly the same time that Jim Parke was voted into council in Victoria, the NSW parliament was voting on new legislation what would prevent Care Park and Parke Lawyers from gaining access to vehicles owner's addresses. In introducing the bill in early November 2012, NSW Minister for Roads and Ports, Mr Duncan Gay, said that "some private car park operators are serial abusers of the preliminary discovery process through which the RMS has been obliged to release driver details". Mr Gay said "instead of using the process to mount a potential court prosecution, operators have been using it to support a business model of posting mass demands to customers and relying on a proportion of them paying”. The minister went on to say "the threat of legal action in collection notices is little more than a scare tactic". Whilst the minister didn't specifically name Care Park, Jim Parke, or any other car parking company, there are only three companies in NSW that access drivers details: ANCP, Care Park, and Secure Parking. So Mr Jim Parke, you won't be able to send out legal threats in NSW to people who don't owe your client money anymore. Talk about justice. Unfortunately Jim Parke can still send out letters in Victoria and other Australian states though.

Victorian state member of parliament, Mr Hong Lim, in parliament, urged the Attorney-General to investigate Parke Lawyers (which is owned by Jim Parke) and to ensure the vulnerable were not victims of legal firms who "prey on the weak and ignorant". Well, Jim Parke, so much for being community minded. Hong Lim has broken your charade. Read more ...

Contact Jim Parke

Address: 335 Doncaster Road, Balwyn North, VIC 3104

A/h: (03) 9816-3752

B/h: (03) 9835-7840

Mobile: 0438-127-059

Email: jim@pl.com.au or Jim.Parke@boroondara.vic.gov.au