Congestion zone charge penalty fight

Jennifer1962

Hello, I have been served a penalty for not paying congestion charge when entering the charge zone before 18.00 hours (after which the charge is not payable). The penalty notice refers to a photo of me showing that I was in Piccadilly at 17.57, although my mobile phone log shows that I took a call at 18.04 when I was sitting outside Harrods (which is outside the congestion charge zone) in a traffic jam. Is there any way I can prove I was outside Harrods at 18.04? Can I access records for CCTV cameras in the area? Can I ask the mobile company to use triangulation technology to show my location when I took the call? Please help!

Fruitcake

You would be better off posting this on pepipoo.com as we tend to specialise in private parking tickets here on MSE.
You will need an email address to register on pepipoo but Hotmail accounts don't work for some reason.

Read the FAQs then post your query including both sides of the redacted penalty change notice.

The_Slithy_Tove

Jennifer1962 wrote: »

The penalty notice refers to a photo of me showing that I was in Piccadilly at 17.57, although my mobile phone log shows that I took a call at 18.04 when I was sitting outside Harrods (which is outside the congestion charge zone) in a traffic jam.

What use is there in proving you were outside the congestion charge zone at a time outside the charging hours? Unless you can prove you were there, or close by at 17:57, you haven't really got a case. Piccadilly to Harrods isn't very far and can be covered in 7 minutes, even in heavy traffic.

fisherjim

"Is there any way I can prove I was outside Harrods at 18.04? Can I access records for CCTV cameras in the area? Can I ask the mobile company to use triangulation technology to show my location when I took the call?"

Not a cats chance of any of that who on earth is going to sift through that for you when no crime has been committed.

You would have to go and find the cctv cameras you think might have caught you, take the details off the pole they are on submit a fee to the authority noted along with a written request as I understand it.

Or if you have a mobile with Google maps on it, it should have recorded your movements for that day.

As for taking a phone call when driving, even in a traffic jamb it's illegal, so be careful what you wish for.