ParkedRIghtOff

parkedoff

Received a threatening Britania letter todayabout a fine, I am not happy!

I am a conscientious person and when entering the carpark went to the ticket machine which was out of order. I hurriedly went into the centre and returned 15 minutes later as their photo of my car shows. I refuse to pay this but what options do i have. Ignoring it seems the incorrect thing, but confronting them seems like an admission of guilt....suggestions please!

Coupon-mad

If in Scotland then just ignore the whole scam - as long as it's your car, not a company or hire/lease car where the owners might be stupid eough to pay the thing when they get a scary letter about it. Nothing wrong with ignoring a fake PCN - I am a conscientious person too and I have ignored two fake PCNs myself - so far - and have advised friends and family to ignore about a dozen between them (and they are all nice law-abiding people too).

If in England/Wales, it's your choice because you can ignore it all and laugh at the letters (like in Scotland) or you can now use the PPC's appeals procediure and then the POPLA independent appeals procedure. IMHO you'd be best to ask for help to word that second stage appeal, or at least read a few threads about POPLA on here first because it's not normally just about sending the same sort of soft appeal to POPLA as is sent to the PPC.

Here's my usual reply in post #14 here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4458671

Loads of links leading to more links, Watchdog videos to watch, and a pic of the letter chain of threats to expect. Having said that, Britannia are very tame, only send out 3 letters and sometimes do cancel fake PCNs on appeal (even without POPLA). In fact one of my ignored fake PCNs last year was from Britannia and they never even sent me any letters (I was quite disappointed as I was ready to laugh at them!). BUt in your case they are writing to you so you can expect the usual letter chain shown in that linked reply above.

So your choice, whatever of the 2 options works for you - if in England/Wales. Certainly don't pay the thing, it is NOT A FINE and you are NOT GUILTY of anything at all. This is a private company with an invoice for money you do NOT owe, their machines were broken or full that day so no-one at that time could have paid. At most you 'owe' them the amount that you tried to put in the machine, could be a couple of pounds? If in England/Wales you could enclose a postal order for that amount when doing your first challenge against the silly amount of this fake PCN (if you prefer the appeal option, and NOT in Scotland). Then you can get help to word your POPLA appeal (not Scotland) later on if Britannia decline your kind offer.

Happy reading of the links so you can see this for what it really is...

Kite2010

If you feel guilty at not paying the landowner for the services of their land, then send a cheque to cover the cost of parking saying something like "on 6/4/13 I parked in your car-park and the ticket machines were out of order, here is the amount I would have paid"

In the very unlikely event Britannia decide to go to court, it shows that the landowner's losses are £1, which you paid/attempted to pay.

Ignore Britannia, they are rather stupid