Do I have to pay this fine

[LJM98]

I parked in a private car park last week and paid the £1.70 to stay for an hour. I have received a parking fine through the post today saying no valid payment method was found and there is cctv images of my entering and exiting the car park. I certainly did pay and I did not over stay as I was in and out of the car park within half an hour which is evidenced on the cctv images on the letter.

I have looked up this firm online and many others have called them scammers, saying they also paid to park and were sent parking fines stating none payment.

I don’t have the original ticket so I’m not sure how I can prove that I did pay the parking fee, if I appeal it. What will happen if I don’t pay the fine? It’s £60 if paid within 2 weeks and then goes up to £100.

You can tell them where to stick it.

Did you pay by card? Perhaps you can use statement as evidence

Did you pay by cash or card?
Was it one of those machines where you have to put your registration number in?

I paid with cash. Yes I had to key in my registration number on the screen. I displayed my ticket clearly but I got rid of it afterwards

Go to Money saving expert and look for the generic parking ticket reply and send it. I used it and just got a letter back from Smart Parking to withdraw my fine.

I would write them, stating the facts and saying you refute all they say. Then leave it with them.

Don't write or give anything else away at this point, just send the generic reply.

If there is cctv, ask them to provide cctv proving you did not pay.

Also do not name the driver if you reply. Just use 'the driver' paid cash etc. And in future always keep your receipt.

I wouldn't ignore it. They have 6 years to take you to court.

Also there is a group on FB which is good. It's called Private Parking Ticket Appeals Group.

Which ppc is it? There's a few fb groups. Not the one rub by Tony or parking tickets my arse.

Do not take advice to ignore, you coukd end up with a ccj.

If you're in England or Wales this info from National Debtline is very good / clear

National Debtline

Despite what certain posters insist of incorrectly blathering on every single thread about parking fines, you shouldn’t do nothing or be a dick about it. It’ll probably come back to bite you even though they’re at fault. As others have said, seek out a template response and send it back.

Yes, send a template response and tell them to prove you didn't pay and you'll be happy to see them in court, as the CCTV coverage will show that you bought a ticket at the machine.

And in future take a photo of the ticket in the windscreen. I always do this in private car parks.

This. MSE have the absolute best advice about these sorts of scammy private parking ticket twatbuckets.

My dd got a parking fine in a car park where you input the number plate and there are cameras. Thankfully she had a receipt on her phone.
It transpires she put a 0 instead on an O, so the ticket was cancelled.
Could you have done something similar?

Sorry, not too helpful now, but I always keep my parking receipts for 6 months or so because I'm paranoid about this happening!

If it was a pay and display they need proof there was no ticket displayed

Did you input your registration slightly wrong ?
CCTV reads your number plate in and out.... you input your reg incorrectly...cctv thinks you've not paid.

Without the ticket and paying cash, it's hard to prove you did pay, but conversely, what evidence do they have that you didn't?

Could you have miskeyed your registration, or accidentally entered the wrong one? If so, they'd have a payment they can't match with a car entering and leaving the car park.

I got a ticket but what had happened was that DP went somewhere in my car and out of habit entered his registration number in the machine. Luckily the ticket was still in my car with his registration on and he paid by card. We googled to find if we could get out of it and found that if you make a minor keying error eg one letter/number wrong, or do what DP and enter the wrong number, partners car, your old car or whatever, this is a legitimate grounds for appeal. I can't find the link where we got this advice, but it said that the rule was that the charge would be reduced to a maximum of a £20 admin fee, but in our case, was cancelled without any charge at all.

However, if you don't know what you might have done wrong, it might be easier just to pay the reduced penalty - it's usually half the 'full' amount if you pay within a couple of weeks because while, if you ignore it you might get away with not paying, you might also get dragged into a long saga of admin and threats from them, and you'll end up wishing you'd just paid at the beginning.

But a lesson for the future. Perhaps just stash your old tickets in your glovebox for a few weeks just in case of incidences like this?

*However, if you don't know what you might have done wrong, it might be easier just to pay the reduced penalty - it's usually half the 'full' amount if you pay within a couple of weeks because while, if you ignore it you might get away with not paying, you might also get dragged into a long saga of admin and threats from them, and you'll end up wishing you'd just paid at the beginning"

but that's what these cowboys rely on. They hope you'll pay the "fine" because it's "only" 50% of it. Why should they even get 50% if you've bought a ticket? Much easier to send a recorded delivery letter telling them to adduce evidence in court.

It is a pity the OP paid in cash but if they want her money, they have to prove her "wrongdoing".

Sorry OP, this happened to my DSD, she even had the receipt on her card but the ombudsman found in favour of the car park company. I don't know how and it certainly needs sorting out. Good luck.

Join ‘Fight your Private Parking Invoice’ on Facebook. It’s run by Tony Taylor. For £15 he will
make this go away, he’s bloody amazing. He’s had 8500 successful appeals so far. Don’t engage with them yourself, leave it to Tony.

Tony managed to sort one out for my son recently. There’s a well known issue with ANPR cameras called ‘double dipping’. DS was flashed going in to a car park at 8pm on a Friday night and then leaving at 9am the next morning. What the camera failed to pick up was that he’d actually only stayed in the car park 8pm-8.10pm on the Friday (then gone to his girlfriend’s house).

On the next morning, he went to the same service station car park just before 9, stayed a few mins to go to the loo and it flashed him leaving. The ticket said he’d been in the car park for 13 hours when he’d actually been there a total of about 20 mins, over two separate days!! Tony managed to get that one wiped. These companies are well aware of double dipping but don’t care that their cameras aren’t picking up every time a car enters and exits. They just want cash.