Bracknell Peel Centre ANPR issue and PCN

5pence

Hi,

First time posting here, and wondered if I could get some advice, please.
In July last year, my wife parked her car at the Peel Centre in Bracknell, then watched a film and had a meal with our children.
I also parked my own car in the same car park, and met my family after they had watched the film.
There was no problem with my own car because it was parked for less than the 2 hour limit.

However, my wife's car was parked for longer.

Before leaving, we got our validation ticket, went to the car park machine, entered the reg for my wife's car. And, strangely enough, there were 2 ANPR photographs for the same car. But the car was definitely only driven into the car park once! We simply confirmed one of the car photos, scanned our bar-code, and the machine stated that there was nothing to pay.

So, all seemed fine and we all left the car park.

However, we now know that the car was actually parked for longer than 3 hours, which exceeds the free time even with bar-code validation. But still, the machine most definitely said there was nothing to pay - we are honest people and would have paid if it had showed a charge.

Just over a week later, we received a letter from Euro Car Parks stating that we had overstayed and now a charge of £70 was due (discounted to £40 if we paid early).

This is the point where I now realise I should have visited this forum for advice. But, we duly replied to ECP and attempted to explain the situation regarding the 2 ANPR recordings, and stated that the machine told us there was nothing to pay.
They wrote back, rejecting this, and advising that we could appeal via the POPLA site.
So, using the POPLA site, we tried to explain the situation (again without consulting this site), and this was also rejected.

So, now we are getting the letters from DRP demanding £130 and threatening court action. I know we can ignore these until an official court notice arrives. But still, it is slightly irritating when we know we have done nothing wrong.
It is true that we did actually exceed the time limit, but the parking machine did not request any money from us.

I realise I will get criticised for not following the Newbie sticky first, but I felt our's is an interesting case worth explaining.

And, if anyone can advise on the best course of action from now, it would be much appreciated. Is it worth submitting another appeal? Or just wait until the debt collectors go away?

I can provide additional details from any of the ECP/POPLA correspondence if necessary.

Many thanks
Spence

Redx

there is nothing further you can do, you are in the debt collector no mans land, stalemate , impasse , there is no further course of action

read post #4 of the sticky thread for NEWBIES

any court letters will come from the PPC, not the debt collectors, so if you get an LBC or an MCOL from the PPC within the next 6 years then ask for more help

mitigation never works, as you can see, in future get the free advice from here and use legal arguments for your appeal, not attempts to explain things

they only want your money, nothing else will do

5pence

Thank you for taking the time to reply, Redx. Lesson well and truly learnt.

The_Deep

They wrote back, rejecting this, and advising that we could appeal via the POPLA site.
So, using the POPLA site, we tried to explain the situation (again without consulting this site), and this was also rejected.


I very much doubt that a judge would reject your story so tell them to take you to court or FOAD.

Coupon-mad

5pence wrote: »

Thank you for taking the time to reply, Redx. Lesson well and truly learnt.

No-one is telling you to pay them. IGNORE THEM. Euro car parks never sue - most cases just get debt letters like this. It is not a lesson to learn, more an understanding of private PCNs and debt collector drivel NOT meaning you need to pay up!

5pence

No-one is telling you to pay them. IGNORE THEM. Euro car parks never sue - most cases just get debt letters like this. It is not a lesson to learn, more an understanding of private PCNs and debt collector drivel NOT meaning you need to pay up!

Yes, by saying "lesson well and truly learnt", I meant that we should have come here for advice first before appealing, and that the price is extra junk mail through our letter box.
I totally agree with the advice here and we have absolutely no intention of paying this fictitious "debt".
Thanks again.

Coupon-mad

So glad and relieved to read that!

norm2008

hi 5Pence, I appreciate this was some time back now, but what was the outcome with ECP as I am in same position having overstayed at Peel centre?

Coupon-mad

norm2008 wrote: »

hi 5Pence, I appreciate this was some time back now, but what was the outcome with ECP as I am in same position having overstayed at Peel centre?

You need to read the NEWBIES FAQS and appeal as per the current 2018 forum advice.




Please don't ask where the NEWBIES thread is, my signature tells you...