To ask how to appeal this parking fine?

[Givemeyourbunsandyourbiscuits]

I have received a £70 fine for allegedly parking in a restricted street in a city 200 miles away. It wasn't me or my car. My husband and I are both insured on that car. The car mostly lives in the garage as it's not our main car. (We each have a car and this one is a 2 seater that never gets used anymore as we have 2 kids now.) That day I was at my mum's using the family car and my husband was at work using his car and the car in question was in our garage.
How can I prove that my car wasn't in a city 200 miles away?

You don't have to prove anything, they do. Just reply and tell them it wasn't your car, tell them the make, model and colour of your car, and tell them that if the car parked illegally matches yours, then it's on cloned plates.

I would take the position that it's for them to prove that my car was there. But, essentially, you need to write to the local authority who issued the ticket and say what you've said here. Ask them what their evidence is.

Thanks.
I've got a form to fill in to appeal but my reasons just sounds daft as anyone could deny it was them.

Recently I had a speeding fine sent to me, describing my cars make, model, colour & reg. the time/date that they stated it happened, I knew I was at home in bed. I was told to prove that I was, which I couldn't obvs. So I told them to prove it by providing photographic evidence of my car. They then apologised, saying it had been a mistake & the fine was dropped.

I queried a speeding fine last year for an offence that happened "up north" when I and my car were "down south".

They took a second look at the photo and realised that there was a fixing in the middle of the C that made it look like an E, and the computer that scans the images hasn't picked it up.

The offending car was a different make and colour to mine.

I would also think about phoning 101 or visit a police station for advice.
A friend of mine had this happen to her and it turned put her car had been cloned.

I’d also contact the non urgent police line and say you are concerned that your car’s plates have been cloned.

Ask them to provide photographic proof. In my area, you log on to their site to check the photos then either pay or appeal.

Have you checked the garage? ;)

We had this and our number plate had been cloned. We wrote back stating the car reg, model and colour was at x address on x date.
It was no problem

Just write and tell them it wasn't you, because you were not in whatever town it was. Cloning is quite common. Or it could be a mistake in reg number etc.

If you have any proof such as phone data or shop/restaurant use miles away add that.

Collegue once got a ticket for not paying the congestion charge despite having never driven within 50 miles of London. He told them this and they never contacted him about it again.

I'd ask the garage if they drove your car anywhere that day...

This happened to us, you must contact dvla and report a possible cloaning of your number plate and attach a copy to the appeal for the fine and vice versa. It was quickly overturned and the culprit was caught within a couple of weeks of us reporting it (it helped that the fraudster was in London with thousands of cameras and we don't live anywhere near London).

Yes, cloning can be taken seriously, because it's often a lot more than a few unpaid parking tickets, ie uninsured cars, not stopping after accidents, fly tipping, use in crimes such as robbery etc.

Hadn't even thought about cloning Hoping it was just a number inputted incorrectly!

And yes it is still in the garage our garage not a repair garage

I'd ask the garage if they drove your car anywhere that day...

The OP says the car was in her garage, where it normally is because it isn’t used, so I would interpret that as a garage on the OP’s property and not the local repair garage.

Definitely make sure your local police are aware of possible cloning.We had this several years ago and ended up with police from a different force banging on our door at 2am looking for someone who had just held up a petrol station. All sorted out very quickly, but not fun at the time!

(((Imagines OP's ACTUAL garage goind for a burn up)))

We had this - the photographic evidence was of a car of the same make and model, with the same registration. Luckily it looked like a different colour. The colour of my car is on the registration documents, so I sent a copy of that in the appeal documents. I also reported it online with the police as a cloning crime and got a crime ref no which went in the appeal documents. It seemed like a lot of effort but two fines came on consecutive days for the same offence and I thought it was better to go in hard rather than appeal a fine a day for the next few years.

they have to prove it was you and obviously someone has fake plates of your number plate

Do they always take a photo?