Lidl parking 'ticket' - on works vehicle, help needed

Ditzy_Bird

I'm aware there are hundreds of threads over numerous websites telling you to ignore these parking 'tickets' as they will stop writing eventually but we have received one for a works vehicle, and need advice. The ticket has been sent to my husbands work via the leasing company and has been passed down to him. We've told his work they are dodgy but his boss has said that he has to deal with it. This means we can't just keep ignoring it as it's going to cause problems - he works for a big company and the lease company will send it to his company where it will go through a couple of people before getting to him and they will start to get annoyed that he hasn't paid it.

The 'ticket' was issued for 31 December 2012, although it was only received at the end of last week. My husband was in the car park, once in the morning and once in the early afternoon and they've taken his entrance picture for the morning and his exit picture for the afternoon and said he was there for 5.5 hours! :mad: As it's so long ago we don't have any receipts from then to prove he shopped there twice, and we also have no way of proving the van was elsewhere in between those times.

As we are unable to ignore the 'ticket' due to the work situation, but I'm not sure how we should approach it. I gather that writing to them opens a dialogue and leaves us open to having to pay the fine anyway. Is it worth spending the time and effort trying to convince them that he was in there twice, or should we just cut our loses and pay it, which totally goes against the grain for me never mind the fact that we don't really have the money for it. We're both getting very worried about it and I don't know what to do for the best.

We have until 28 January before they put the 'fine' up so any help would be very grateful. Hopefully I've provided enough information for someone to be able to help, if not please say what else you need and I'll try and provide it tonight when I get home from work.

Many thanks

The_Slithy_Tove

You need to hook the PPC in your husband's direction in order to take the lease company and work out of the loop. Therefore the advice in this situation is that you DO appeal.

Say something like this (words nicked from Gan on pepipoo, who is master of the brief response):

Dear Sir

Ref : *****

I wish to appeal this PCN

The vehicle made two visits on this date.
Please check your ANPR

Yours Faithfully

You don't need to say any more. Just as long as they have your address now. If (when) it is rejected, you can go to POPLA if you wish. Or you can simply ignore them. I really can't believe you are even considering paying a single penny. Do you really cave in to bullies so easily?

ManxRed

Does your husband have any evidence or witnesses that he and the car was elsewhere in the intervening time?

Just thinking ahead. Do as The Slithy Tove suggests for now.

The_Slithy_Tove

ManxRed wrote: »

Does your husband have any evidence or witnesses that he and the car was elsewhere in the intervening time?

Who cares? It's for THEM to prove that the vehicle was there for as long as claimed, not to prove it was elsewhere. Can you imagine them attempting to go to court, and providing the first-entry/last-exit photos as evidence, and deliberately hiding the evidence they have of the intervening exit/entry? Contempt of court, anyone?

We all know that conveniently overlooking exits/entries is a favourite scam tactic, whether executed by accident or design.

ManxRed

I'm thinking about POPLA, TS, and the DVLA. They might care.

fawd1

Or go into that branch of Lidl, talk to the manager and explain the situation. Worked for me when I got a ticket from Morrisons, and I actually was there for more than the 2 hours allowance. The managers do have the authority to contact the PCN and cancel the ticket so it's worth a go.

Stroma

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

You need to hook the PPC in your husband's direction in order to take the lease company and work out of the loop. Therefore the advice in this situation is that you DO appeal.

Say something like this (words nicked from Gan on pepipoo, who is master of the brief response):

You don't need to say any more. Just as long as they have your address now. If (when) it is rejected, you can go to POPLA if you wish. Or you can simply ignore them. I really can't believe you are even considering paying a single penny. Do you really cave in to bullies so easily?

I would say to add your name and address to that also, plus the reference number they give you. Obvious I know but getting it right the first time is the way to do it

Coupon-mad

Yep you simply need to give them the name and address of the driver as part of a very simple appeal letter. That permanently hooks the future letters away from the lease co. Job done, then you can ignore the scam like we all do!

Do this quickly so the lease co never get another letter. Maybe send a copy to your Fleet Manager and a copy to the lease company with this BVRLA link asking why the Lease company are not up to speed yet with their Trade Body's advice to simply give driver's details because these are not real parking tickets and as long as they give the driver's info the lease company then has zero liability.

Show them this and point out the bit under 'Protection of Freedoms Act':

http://www.bvrla.co.uk/Lobbying_and_Campai...egislation.aspx

As you can see, the Lease co. played this wrong. They should have given the drivers details within 28 days which would remove any chance of them being 'liable' at all.

So I would give them this link and say, sorry to be fairly assertive over this issue but I am amazed that the Lease company has taken a scam so seriously. Forgive my ignorance but why on earth are {Lease company name} not following simple BVRLA guidance seeing as it's the way to get immediate zero liability for {Lease company} and has been on the BVRLA website since October? But, please note, to protect your position on this occasion and draw the usual private parking 'scamogram' letters to me I have written to the parking firm myself with my own details (see attached copy letter) so your involvement in this fake PCN is now zero. I will not be held responsible for any repercussions arising from any responses you might make to the parking firm - there is absolutely no need for you to respond now and they CANNOT lawfully write to you again now they know who was driving. And as this 'fake PCN invoice' is not even covered by the 'fines' section of my car use t&cs, I will certainly not reimburse any amount if a staff member mistakes this scam impersonation for a real parking ticket and pays it.

Ditzy_Bird

Thanks for the replies. Only able to skim through as having problems connecting to the internet at the moment, hopefully should be sorted today. Work sending ticket back and telling them to readdress to hubby so am hoping that will help with ignoring it.

ringsandthings

What I want to know is how do they get your address???

nigelbb

ringsandthings wrote: »

What I want to know is how do they get your address???

The DVLA sell them your details.