Parking fine, but not my car. Number plate cloned.

Lester28

Hi, I've gone through the newbie section, but can't see anything regarding if your number plate has been cloned. So I'll ask here. I've got a parking fine from NTC (Norwich Traffic Control) saying that I parked in an industrial estate near Bletchley on 24/08/20 at 23:56. I've never been to Bletchley and certainly not to an industrial estate at midnight. They have sent me tiny photos that you can just see the front plate at the time and it is my number plate. Can't see the car in the photo, due to my car being black. As this is not me and I suspect my number plate may have been cloned, I have contacted the police to let them know in case anything dodgy happened at that time on the industrial estate, but I'm not sure where I stand with the parking fine? Is NTC one of those companies that you just ignore or do I need to contact them? I haven't contacted them, as I've seen somewhere that making contact admits guilt and they would then pursue further. If I did contact them to tell them of the cloned plates, would they even believe me and how can I prove it wasn't me when I was at home (46 miles away) asleep? Thanks in advance.

Redx

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Lester28

Redx said:

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Thank you for the quick response. Is there a list of abbreviations so I can look them up? Sorry, I'm a complete newbie with parking fines.

Lester28

Lester28 said:

Redx said:

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Thank you for the quick response. Is there a list of abbreviations so I can look them up? Sorry, I'm a complete newbie with parking fines.

I think I've found an abbreviation list. Thanks.

Lester28

Lester28 said:

Lester28 said:

Redx said:

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Thank you for the quick response. Is there a list of abbreviations so I can look them up? Sorry, I'm a complete newbie with parking fines.

I think I've found an abbreviation list. Thanks.

Scrub that. The list I just found doesn't contain any mentioned.

Redx

Lester28 said:

Redx said:

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Thank you for the quick response. Is there a list of abbreviations so I can look them up? Sorry, I'm a complete newbie with parking fines.

its not a fine , its an INVOICE , pcn , or parking charge notice

none of these private parking companies can FINE you, but they can send out invoices, so they do

nowhere on your paperwork does the word FINE get mentioned, because its illegal for them to use that legal term , you have misinterpreted it into something it is not , never refer to it as a FINE , it gives it the air of legitimacy , which it is not

fb1969

DPO = Data Protection Officer
GDPR =  General Data Protection Regulation 
NTK = Notice To Keeper

Redx

Lester28 said:

Lester28 said:

Lester28 said:

Redx said:

it is their job to prove it was your vehicle (not you as a person)

I would appeal telling them that the pictures are unclear and your vehicle was 46 miles away with you the KEEPER asleep in the house at the time. that you have contacted the police reference 123456789 in case the plate has been cloned. tell them to identify the correct vehicle and to send them an NTK instead, plus for their DPO to erase their records under GDPR because your vehicle was not involved and your data was obtained without due cause

in other words , common sense

keep a copy of all of this, including paperwork and your appeal

Thank you for the quick response. Is there a list of abbreviations so I can look them up? Sorry, I'm a complete newbie with parking fines.

I think I've found an abbreviation list. Thanks.

Scrub that. The list I just found doesn't contain any mentioned.

scroll down to the fifth post of the newbies faq sticky thread near the top of the forum

Lester28

Just clarify myself or my car was not present at the specified time and location, but they have photos of a car with my number plates being there. So my plates have been cloned and as such, I didn't get a ticket put on my windscreen. They have sent me the NTK, so asking them to send an NTK would only come back to me. Having looked at photos again now with a magnifying glass, I've noticed there are no lights from my front and rear cameras. So I've checked and I have the video recordings of my car sat outside my house 46 miles away at that exact date and time. If I appeal they're bound to ask me who the driver is, but I don't know, as it was not my car present, but my number plates were. I don't want to be tricked or forced into admitting something that is not true and then they start pursing me.
This is a complete minefield and I've spent the afternoon and evening trying to work things out, but getting nowhere. I thought if it was a private company issuing then you ignore it, but if from a council then you have to pay. That was my limited understanding of these matters. Now I'm in this position I just want to double check if I should just put the paperwork in the bin and forget about it or not.

Redx

do not ignore it, if a judge were to ask you this in court, instead of telling them its not your vehicle and you had proof , they would not be happy with you not telling this parking company the truth or the facts in your defence

appeal and state that it is definitely not your vehicle and you have no idea who was driving the vehicle they took pictures of, that you have reported a possibly cloned plate vehicle to the police reference 123456789 and you have CCTV recordings of your actual vehicle outside your house 46 miles away at the time of the incident where you as the keeper were in bed

tell them to erase your data because it was not obtained lawfully under the GDPR and it must be erased by their DPO asap because if it is not and they carry on pursuing you then you will report them to the ICO and will counter claim against them for falsehoods and a DPA breach

you have then told them all you can, keep a copy of it

Umkomaas

It's more than likely your VRM has been misread by the ANPR (or CCTV as NTC use these extensively). Possibly a 6 as a 0 (or vice versa) a C as a G (or vice versa) for example, rather than a number plate cloning. The identification of your vehicle make and model is not done by them, rather they are handed that information linked to the VRM they have provided to the DVLA.  We see far more of such incidences rather than cloning. 

Any of your VRM numbers/letters that could be confused with ones similar in shape?