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A licence system should be introduced to crack down on rogue car park operators who send "threatening" demands for penalty charges, the Commons has heard.
Henry Smith (Con, Crawley) said the regime could be administered by councils, with private car park operators covering the cost of the scheme by paying an application fee.
Introducing a bill under the ten minute rule motion, Smith said some "unscrupulous car park operators" would send "aggressive" demands over minor errors, such as parking with a wheel touching a white line.
His Consumer Protection (Private car Parks) Bill would see operators licensed by local authorities in a similar way to pubs or taxi drivers.
He told MPs: "Often the experience is that those consumers who have used a private car park that is publicly available receive in the post, several days later, a very threatening demand for a so-called penalty payment from the provider, and they allege that the consumer has not purchased the correct ticket.
"Yet even when that consumer can produce evidence that they did indeed buy, for example, a pay-and-display ticket, the privately-run operator simply says 'well, it wasn't displayed properly'."
The Crawley MP said rogue operators would also demand payment for "minor and accidental infractions" such as parking just outside a designated bay.
Unlike private car parks open to the public, those run by local authorities had a proper appeals process, Smith said.
The MP also warned about the "disturbing and insidious" high fines charged by private car park providers, with sums of £70 rising to £100 or more demanded.
The Bill was given an unopposed first reading but stands little chance of becoming law without government support.
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