Annoying parking ticket & collection from a University in another city

[Ferra]

My parent got this parking ticket statement from a university in another city 300km away from where they live. (Parking fine $125 for parking in fire lane)
they have never received any parking ticket, and more importantly, they have never even been to that university or that city.
No one else drive their car, so it must be some sort of mistake on their parking staff.

There is no information on the ticket other than the license plate & date.
They got their name & address from the MTO office (with a $25 fee, now billed to us)
I called earlier, the bitches at the office won't give me ANY information, they wont' provide me a copy of the original ticket, and can't give me any details on the ticket (car description, vin#, and not even the time the ticket issued)

I asked to dispute the ticket, and was told I need to write a letter and pay the entire fine+fees ($150) before they will hear my dispute...call turned into an argument and phone cut off, we ignored it from there
and 2 weeks later, we see a collection in our mail for the ticket...

So, what can we do about this? My parents doesn't want to ignore it as it will probably hurt their credit a bit, and their mortgage is due for renewal in about a year. But of course they dont' want to pay for a fine they did not commit...
It feels like getting rip-off & robbed, and there is nothing we can do about it.

I am thinking of sending a letter with a filled plaintiff claim form, and telling them that I will take the matter to small claim court if they do not remove the fine and collection...
Anyone has any experience with this?

[q0192837465]

could be a scam. There was a thread about collection company scamming ppl.

[Ferra]

Originally Posted by q0192837465

could be a scam. There was a thread about collection company scamming ppl.

i don't think so, the original invoice is from a quite well-known university. The number and information matches their website as well.

I got the invoice from and talked directly with the university parking dept first.

[bartone]

there is no way you have to pay fees and fines before you can dispute