Parking ticket fine

[Girlinblue]

So me and my partner went for a meal on Saturday 28th September. We bought a pay and display ticket for 2 hours and were there for 1 and a half hours. We received a letter yesterday which is a £60 fine, I appealed it this morning and sent a picture of the pay and display ticket plus a screen shot of the transaction on my bank statement.

The appeal has been rejected because it is computer generated and there is no payment against my reg plate. The rejection email states there may have been a “keying error” which I am assuming that means maybe I entered my reg plate incorrectly. I can’t find any number to call them to explain. The fact of the matter is that I paid for that parking. I am now being charged £80. I want to explain to someone that if they check their system they will see a reg plate the same as mine but maybe off by 1 letter or number because I must have hit the wrong key or something.

What’s should I do in this situation? Do I just admit defeat and pay £80 for a ticket that I actually already paid for, or would I get anywhere if I kept pushing back and didn’t pay it? I just don’t think it’s fair for me to be charged this when my car had a ticket in it for the duration of my stay and I haven’t done anything wrong apart from human error, but still paid! Does anyone have any advice and know how on earth I contact euro car parks? My fine was £60 but because I appealed it they’ve added another £20 as an admin charge 😢 I don’t have the money and feel like this is very unfair

I wouldn't pay this, OP. The 'D' for your registration shouldn't have been accepted at all and I think you have grounds for appeal there. I would go back to Eurocarparks and ask for a POPLA code, they will then send you a verification code.

Send any letters, recorded delivery, so that there is no doubt that they arrived. Hopefully you'll just need to send one.

I would also go onto Moneysavingexpert as PP has suggested, there are many, many examples of this sharp practice on there with some very helpful posters who can guide you out of this.

I've been fencing with a parking charge notice since 2019. I won't pay it, they keep trying and gnashing their teeth because they know they won't win, their charge was unlawful.

I know quite a bit about this from my previous profession. Unfortunately, you will have to pay it if you've put the reg in incorrectly. People have already tried taking this to higher up courts and it's been denied as a valid reason to not have to pay the fine.

It sucks, but unless you can prove it was an error with the machine, you've got no chance of getting anywhere with this. It'll be a waste of time and energy appealing it.

I'm really sorry.

I did appeal but they’ve rejected it 😔

Then go to the next level … see Money Saving Expert

I actually think it's immoral that these parking companies can charge you massive fines with absolutely no way of contacting them to sort out minor errors (whether the fault of the customer, the company or the machine tech).

Sorry that doesn't help you OP. I would probably just pay it to avoid the massive headache and possible increased fine or court summons. However you could take them on, with the help of Money Saving Expert, local newspaper etc.

If you paid DO NOT pay the fine. Stick to your guns and keep appealing. I’ve appealed many parking tickets in my life, and have got off with almost every single one. They lose the will eventually and leave you alone.

The ticket shouldn't have been processed at all with 'D' on it for a registration. OP has grounds to appeal to POPLA and that's what she should do because it's not a legitimate charge.

I don't how often you came across this in your profession but I've had many run-ins with parking companies and so many of them are unlawful in their activities.

On that ticket the space doesn't look big enough for a full reg to be entered. I know some car parks just ask for the numbers and not the whole registration. I would appeal because the machine should not have accepted that as a valid reg.

I've done this before in central London

Please don't let people persuade you to pour more energy into this. It's a hiding to nothing.

I actually had a fine on my car a couple of weeks ago because I was at my friend's house and he needed to add me on as a visitor because there's restricted parking around his. He'd had added me but had mistyped my reg.

Both he and I knew there was no point appealing it. He's a criminal barrister and I've done a lot of work previously with fines. He just had to pay the fine. They had us bang to rights, alas.

Sorry I didn't finish!

I've done this before in central London. The automated voice thing misheard a letter of my car reg. When I went back to my car I found a parking fine on it and as the inspector was still there I went to speak to him and that's when I realised wrong reg. he said as he's issued it there's nothing he can do so I had to contact them and luckily they could see the issue and it was ok.
I know my story is slightly different though.

I hope you get it sorted

They'll never take you to court for this and if they did, you have a valid ticket for the time of the "infraction" and no way for them to prove that the partial reg. was a user error or a machine/printing error.

So you could stick it out. They'll send you some more letters which you can either ignore or keep responding with the same reply.

They'll try and bully you via letter but if you can handle that anxiety then you won't have to pay.

…and keep saying you typed everything in …

I've dealt with literally thousands of fines in my time. There's no chance they'll rescind this. It's already been taken to the court of appeal by other people and they lost.

After I tried to appeal a parking charge unsuccessfully with the car park operator I went directly to the business I had been visiting at the time (it was a hotel) and they cancelled the charge with the car park operator.
It might be worth a try if you have your bill and parking ticket.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/they-ve-gone-too-far-country-park-visitors-locked-in-sca-313927/

OP - this article was on a local news site recently. You might be able to get it reduced to a £20 admin fee or try fighting it all the way.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/01/drivers-who-enter-wrong-numberplate-could-be-spared-hefty-fines-/

I have appealed a ticket to POPLA before, and won. I followed advice on other forums such as MSE.
A colleague of mine just binned their fine letter - not sure how wise that is, so I'm not going to advise you do it, but over a year later they've heard nothing more. Although they simply didn't acknowledge it, no appeal or anything.

£50 for mistyping a reg when you paid is ridiculous, yet their threats of court scare so many people into paying it. No wonder their appeal systems are all automated, I wouldn't want to be sitting on the other end of a customer service line for them!

…From their own Code of Conduct around keying errors … the very maximum they should ask for is £25

That is not true. You have a right by law to make a small error of one digit!

I agree with this, OP. They will threaten everything they can, up to and including court. I wouldn't pay this. Hang on to that ticket, send a copy of it and your bank transaction, with a letter, requesting the POPLA code, stating that this is your valid ticket and that you consider the matter closed.

Send it recorded delivery and, as they're so flaming lazy and unwilling to send letters that can be proven delivered, hold your nerve.

Don't be bullied. Many of us have successfully challenged these. Go onto Moneysavingexpert for more information about what to do with what you've received.

Oh wow! So seems like this is a common issue then. That makes me think it was the machines fault (but you can’t prove that). There’s no way I only typed D Into the keypad. I typed out my whole reg. so it’s the machines fault but also my fault for not checking the ticket

You can. My sister got one for an overstay in my gym car park. She's a lawyer. She appealed and hit them with so many requests for information that they lost the will to live and rescinded it.

I'm not an expert but she was asking for documentation to show their interest in the land (the parking company has to have an interest in the land to operate), their membership of an appropriate trade body etc etc. It was going to cost them more to provide than the fine, so they dropped it.

Try going on the internet and looking for similar cases. It's particularly galling in your case as you'd actually paid. We did overstay in my gym car park (there's no fee but there is a time limit) but I wasn't aware as I never drive to the gym and my sister was a guest and didn't see the notices on her first visit. In our defence, we were actually in the gym the whole time; we hadn't taken the piss by going off shopping elsewhere or some such.

Good luck 😘

I had a fine - £60. I actually paid twice. The first I put one digit wrong, checked my payment was pending it was. When I came back I paid again with the right reg, just to make sure - payment also pending.

A month later received the fine! I checked my bank and no charges at all kn my account they must have withdrawn them. I rhink the cancelled the first due to wrong reg and the second for not staying long enough! A joke isn't? There are lot of ways not to pay if you follow reddit posts. I was in my DH's car so apparently don't have to pay the fine anyway.

See - this is the kind of thing politicians should be looking at.

It's ridiiculous to pay a fine if you've paid for the ticket. Even if the reg was wrong.

In the "old" days you would have someone going round physically looking at the dashboard to see a ticket.