Issued fixed penalty for littering but they know it wasn't me!

[FixedPenaltySos]

I've been issued a fixed penalty via post for the offence of littering. When querying it (as not something I ever do) I was told via email that it was a male - I am female with a female name. When I responded that it was not me, and they clearly agreed it was not me and therefore the penalty should be cancelled they have responded saying it will remain against me unless I identify who it was.

The only person it could have been was DH, who also does not litter. The original penalty notice says "littering from a vehicle." So I imagine they got my details from DVLA. However in our back and forth email correspondence they have stated that 'the male' was approached and refused to give his details, then got in the vehicle and drove off. This quite simply didn't happen! DH would remember, and would have told me when he got home! I have requested footage in order to identify said 'male' as I'm quite certain this footage does not exist, and quelle surprise they have replied refusing to share it due to 'Data Protection' laws.

I know this isn't AIBU, but AIBU to refuse to pay a fine for an offence i have not committed snd that they have confirmed they know i have not committed?!

@FixedPenaltySos I would message them back, and say you would like to sort this, you don't believe it was you and in order to confirm to you that they have the correct details could they please confirm a) the colour of the car was black (or white or grey, whatever popular colour your cars are not), and b) the year of registration, neither of which is identifying in any way (but if they had the correct reg then they'd know both of these things).

If they say no it wasn't the colour you suggest but was the correct colour of car, and year of reg was correct, and it's a place your DH might go sometimes, then you might have cause to think it could be you, but I suspect the info they have is totally incorrect.

I'm thinking that registrations locally might start in same way so if they then got a letter or digit wrong it could land with your car by mistake, being intended for another local car. I do often locally see a very similar reg car to my DDs as it starts with the same 3 letters but it's a very different car.

I feel your pain, OP. I once got a very nasty letter accusing me of putting household rubbish in a bin in a park. It turned out that I'd put a letter addressed to me into the bin; I'd been reading the letter while I was crossing the park. They blamed me for a load of food waste that was already in the bin.
I wrote twice explaining what had happened and asking for an apology, but all I got was a final letter saying 'We accept that on this occasion the other contents of the bin did not belong to you, but if you deposit household waste again in this manner, you will be fined.'

Would it be worth going to the Local Authority this organisation is allegedly working for and ask if it is genuine?

To be honest I would treat this as a scam and report them to the police.

Our area has seen a sudden uptick in aggressive enforcement of littering from a private agency whose staff have been very unpleasant to women and the elderly,hidden in alleyways trying to catch people out. Put a data subject access request in, write to your local council and your MP.

I have never ever heard of people being sent letters issuing fixed penalty notices for littering. Is this really a thing?

It sounds like a scam to me.

Possibly they have genuinely written a number of the registration plate down incorrectly, though very odd that if so they’ve managed to unintentionally come up with a car in the correct town.

or they are making the whole thing up, in which case asking them to confirm make and model and colour of car won’t help as they can look that up and carry on lying.

or your dh/or you were in that area and at some point opened a car door and a piece of rubbish blew out the car???

but certainly sounds like they have no proof. Other than the statement of one of their employees. I’d certainly go to court and argue about it. Can you look up your Google timelines to see if you were there on that day? Mine is very accurate.

Yes, it is a thing. You can receive an FPN for a range of environmental offences including littering, fly posting, failing to clean up after your dog and graffiti.

Some LAs have an appeal process OP could follow. If there is no appeal process or the appeal is rejected, OP can let them take her to court and defend the case. If there is any video of the alleged incident, the LA will have to produce it. They can't hide behind data protection if this goes to court.

See them in court. No way would I be letting this go.