Fighting a council parking ticket

dggar

ILW wrote: »

So if the council could show that on that day and before and after the OPs ticket, that the machine produced other tickets with the "6" working. Would that be considered as proof?

If you think that would work as a proof go for it.

ILW

dggar wrote: »

If you think that would work as a proof go for it.

No need, I check the tickets before leaving the car.

TrickyWicky

ILW wrote: »

So if the council could show that on that day and before and after the OPs ticket, that the machine produced other tickets with the "6" working. Would that be considered as proof?

Proof of what? That it worked earlier in the day? Not really. It doesn't prove that it worked at the time the op used the machine. Pay and display machines are notorious for having intermittent faults.

dggar

ILW wrote: »

No need, I check the tickets before leaving the car.

And if it failed to print correctly what would you do?

TrickyWickey has kindly spelt out for you why it would not stand up as a proof.

For your proposition to be valid you would have to build a machine that would never fail.

Without such a machine the tickets printed on the day before and the day after would only show that the machine operated correctly on those occations.

ILW

dggar wrote: »

And if it failed to print correctly what would you do?

TrickyWickey has kindly spelt out for you why it would not stand up as a proof.

For your proposition to be valid you would have to build a machine that would never fail.

Without such a machine the tickets printed on the day before and the day after would only show that the machine operated correctly on those occations.

My question was more a matter of law than practicality.

The offense is usually "failure to display a valid ticket".

This is an absolute offense and any reason for not displaying is only mitigation rather than voiding of the offence.

I believe that legally speaking, if the machine will not supply you with a valid ticket, you should not park there, but would have a right to a refund of any moneys paid.

I would suspect the will eventually cancel the penalty in the end though.

TrickyWicky

ILW wrote: »

The offense is usually "failure to display a valid ticket".

This is an absolute offense and any reason for not displaying is only mitigation rather than voiding of the offence.

Look, the op bought a ticket and the machine failed to register a digit of their number plate. That means the machine is faulty. It is beyond the ops control to purchase a 100% valid ticket with a machine like that and the council can not prove that it was given to them by someone else. This PCN will not stand up at an appeal.

If the council are so concerned about the ticket not being valid due to their machines being faulty then they should have done one of three things:
1) Closed the car park
2) Put a bag over the machine with a sign saying faulty
3) Suspended all of the bays near the machine

Why? Because continuing to take money from people and then issuing PCNs for tickets that a dodgy machine issued is fraudulent.

While I see that you're trying to get to the bottom baseline legal position, the council do not have a leg to stand on. The numbers on a ticket are only supposed to serve as a deterrent anyway and most CEOs don't even bother looking at them (you'll always find the odd one who does though). I never used to bother with the damn things unless I was really bored and needed to pass the time. Even then I would always see plenty with 2 digits instead of 3 but I wouldn't issue to them. The only time I would was if all 3 digits were incorrect - thats fair game but like I said this was only if the day was really dragging and I needed to pass the time.

Who are you anyway ILW? - A PPC boss, council parking boss, CEO? You seem very concerned about the council being able to justify and defend this PCN.