Please help - 7 days to reply to POPLA comments

robberbutton

Hello everyone. I deeply regret that it has got to this stage before I asked for help, but I have only just found this forum, and I thought my case was so simple I just needed to explain it.

I parked at a Gemini controlled car park to take my children swimming. I bought a 2 hour ticket and placed it on the dashboard of my car. Unfortunately there is a dip in the dashboard, and Gemini are claiming that I have failed to display a valid ticket, because they were able to take a picture of the front of my car without the ticket in shot.

I still have the ticket. I first wrote to them explaining what had happened, but they have rejected my appeal. I then submitted a POPLA form without realising how important it was to do all this research and write it out properly. I feel terrible about the mistakes I've made, but I can't believe that they are still pursuing me considering I bought the ticket and placed it on the dashboard of the car.

Gemini are saying it must be visible through the windscreen - I am able to provide photographic evidence of where it was, that the ticket IS visible through the windscreen, just not from the angle that they took it.

Please help! I'm currently reading through previous replies to POPLA comments on here.

Thank you.

UnicornBlood_2

I've had some experience helping a friend with something similar.

1- You could take your own photos of the dip showing how the ticket could have been there and their photo angle just did not show it. Showing a lack of evidence that you did not display the ticket.

2- If there are any reflections in the photo that make it difficult to see the dashboard behind it, you could claim their photo is not clear and that your ticket was in fact placed there.

3- or perhaps you put the ticket on the back shelf and forgot? do they have photos of the back? does the ticket say it HAS to be displayed in the front of the car? it might not specify. If they don't have photos to prove it wasn't in the back on the car there is a lack of evidence.

I would wait for others replies also as my experience is limited.

pappa_golf

robberbutton wrote: »

Help everyone. I deeply regret that it has got to this stage before I asked for help, but I have only just found this forum, and I thought my case was so simple I just needed to explain it.

I parked at a Gemini controlled car park to take my children swimming. I bought a 2 hour ticket and placed it on the dashboard of my car. Unfortunately there is a dip in the dashboard, and Gemini are claiming that I have failed to display a valid ticket, because they were able to take a picture of the front of my car without the ticket in shot.

I still have the ticket. I first wrote to them explaining what had happened, but they have rejected my appeal. I then submitted a POPLA form without realising how important it was to do all this research and write it out properly. I feel terrible about the mistakes I've made, but I can't believe that they are still pursuing me considering I bought the ticket and placed it on the dashboard of the car.

Gemini are saying it must be visible through the windscreen - I am able to provide photographic evidence of where it was, that the ticket IS visible through the windscreen, just not from the angle that they took it.

Please help! I'm currently reading through previous replies to POPLA comments on here.

Thank you.

go and read geminis signage VERY carefully , does it STATE ticket to be placed behind windscreen and CLEARLY viable , or that a ticket must be displayed

robberbutton

Thank you, I will go and check. Gemini are claiming in their comments that the signs say "Tickets, permits or scratch cards must be clearly displayed within the windscreen of the vehicle." I will double check that, but in the photo they uploaded the sign nearest my car is hidden by branches.

The ticket I got from the machine just says PLACE TICKET ON DASHBOARD. Those were the instructions I followed, as it was getting dark (4pm last week) and I had four children with me.

Aside from that, I have photos taken from the outside of my car through the front windscreen showing the ticket, just not from the angle they used.

Thanks for your help.

robberbutton

Also, the notice I received on the car simply says No Ticket, but what they are claiming now is Failure to display valid ticket through the windscreen. Are those not different charges?

robberbutton

Every single photo that they have provided of the signs in the car park is blurred, you cannot make out a single word, indicating how hard the signs are to read and how small the wording is. I got the bit about the windscreen from a printed PDF that they included, not from the actual signs. "All Vehicles must display a valid ticket" is easy enough to read, but the bit about the windscreen is in tiny font.

fisherjim

robberbutton wrote: »

Also, the notice I received on the car simply says No Ticket, but what they are claiming now is Failure to display valid ticket through the windscreen. Are those not different charges?

They are dirty lowlife scammers it matters not, you have an invoice not a charge in the form of a "fine" or "penalty", forget what was displayed or not displayed you are past that mitigation stage which rarely works with PPC's anyway.

You now need technical/legal arguments for POPLA.

robberbutton

I only have to 2000 word comment section now, not able to submit new photos or documents. Is that enough space to lay out a technical/legal argument?

I was so upset when I first received the ticket, but I'm getting calmer about it by the day. It's extraordinary that you can follow everything you are meant to do, to the best of your ability, and still they come after you. How naive was I to think that all I had to do was tell them what happened! Up until last year or so it was a free car park anyway

KeithP

robberbutton wrote: »

I only have to 2000 word comment section now, not able to submit new photos or documents. Is that enough space to lay out a technical/legal argument?

You can send it as a PDF email attachment if necessary.

robberbutton

If the parking attendant took the photo of my windscreen standing two feet to the left or right, the ticket would clearly be able to be seen through the windscreen. Can I say that their photos do not prove I did not have a valid ticket on display?

Coupon-mad

Yes, definitely.

That's very important - spell that out to POPLA that the operative has taken the photos at a skewed angle, deliberately to try to paint a misleading picture to POPLA that suggests the ticket ''wasn't visible'', but in fact you drive a xxxxxxx xxxxxxx (make and model) and this has a slight dip in the dashboard specially for things like Blue Badges, permits or PDT tickets to sit in when parked; which serves the purpose of displaying them but stopping them for being able to slip down (and it didn't slip down).

Say that POPLA should review the photos and consider that the whole dashboard has never been shown and that seems deliberate, so that Gemini could use their misleading business practice to angle the photos spuriously to excluse the clear view of the PDT ticket sitting in the dashboard well, not obscured nor covered by anything; it was there for all to see when standing at a proper (fair) angle.