Strange APCOA Penalty Notice - please help.

andrewfordays

Hi everyone, I'm hoping you can help me with a strange notice we received after returning from holiday yesterday,

I have read the newbie page as well as multiple APCOA related posts but have noticed that most of the advice relates to challenges based on poor signage etc.  Whereas in this case the car simply was not parked at all!

You can see the letter with personal info redacted on the pictures here:

We genuinely don't know who the driver was but what we find curious and somewhat aggressive/stressful is that whoever it did drive did not park at all, only stop to pick up a rail passenger from the station. 

As you'll have seen in the evidence they have provided, one picture is of the car clearly moving along the road and the other is a picture in the dark with the car lights still turned on.

My question therefore is, how should we appeal? Do we go with the usual blue template or should we amend it to state the car was never parked in the first place?

Many kind thanks for any help we can get, from what we have read already we're really grateful that places like this exist.

A

Fruitcake

You have left your VRM showing.

The notice doesn't mention parking. It says the alleged offence was for "Use of private car park without making payment." Sneaky.

Since they are claiming byelaws apply, then this should time out after six months, but which is it. Is it a private car park as they state, or is it a car park under statuary control where byelaws apply? 
You should complain to the BPA about this misinformation, and that a private parking company is misrepresenting authority by pretending that they can issue a penalty note, which is a breach of the BPA's Code of Practice.

In any case, a byelaws infringement would be heard in the magistrate's court, and APCOA would get not a penny if that happened. I think you should be using delaying tactics.

The Keeper should complain to the train company or railway asset owner, and their MP.

See what others say, but I suggest you send the blue template as near to the appeal deadline as possible, and add that the car did not park. Also state that the keeper was not the driver, you do not know who was driving, and the keeper cannot be held liable where byelaws are concerned. In addition, the PoFA 2012 does not apply where byelaws are in effect, so the keeper cannot be held liable according to that Act. They should therefore cancel now or contact the driver direct.

Umkomaas

Go with the blue text initial appeal from the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, first post.  Add the following:

'As your Penalty Charge Notice does not comply with the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4), neither does the car park in question as it is 'not relevant land', you are, in law, unable to hold the registered keeper of the vehicle liable for the penalty; I suggest therefore that you contact the driver. As there is no legal requirement placed on the registered keeper to identify the driver, I will not be doing so.'

Coupon-mad

Same as all the other APCOA railway penalty threads.  Read a few, we had one last month.

Easy to kill off.

fisherjim

Penalty Notice, Creditor APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd I would have thought that was sanctionable by the BPA

andrewfordays

Thanks everyone,

@Fruitcake it's a public road as far as I'm aware, as it has double lines on it. Here's the google street view for reference !!!!!!/bmBL2. We suspect the car would have been parked on the left to pick up a passenger from the station but it's impossible to tell from the pictures where the car has stopped. 

With regard to the 6 months, what does this mean exactly? We can simply do nothing and it will go away with zero down side? Would love to have clarity on this point as it seems too good to be true!

@Umkomaas, thank you, pending fruitcake's remarks, I'll do a draft and add it up here once I am back on the laptop.

@fisherjim on the sanction. Is this something we would have to initiate? We want as little stress as possible but we also think it's a totally unreasonable penalty.

Fruitcake

If a byelaws offence is to be pursued, it has to be within six months in a magistrate's court as per the Magistrate's Act. This would have to be done by the train operating company or the railway asset owner (whatever Network Rail call themselves now).

I suspect APCOA are pretending that they have the authority to pursue a byelaws case, but I believe that they do not. Some train companies use SABA, who are licenced to issue penalties and take motorists to the magistrate's court. To my knowledge, APCOA do not have that authority.

They can issue a parking charge notice. They are not allowed to (not supposed to) issue penalty charges.

BPA will (should) apply sanctions to the PPC, but this will only happen if the keeper complains about the PPC's actions. 

I don't know what this means, !!!!!!/bmBL2.

Is this it? The image is four years old and shows the site was infested by Indigo back then.

84 Brighton Rd - Google Maps

If not, please post a web link, but change https to hxxps.

andrewfordays

No worries, you copy-paste it into your browser as I can't post links yet due to being a massive newb

Alternatively, take the spaces out of this:

http://   !!!!!!/bmBL2

Le_Kirk

Fruitcake said:

I don't know what this means, !!!!!!/bmBL2.

It is a way of shortening extremely long URLs (web addresses) and it equates to this: -
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.315766,-0.1381113,3a,75y,182.8h,85.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLO-VvlQZfZ1N6xSHUerFXQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Just copy and paste it into the address bar of a browser.

Fruitcake

Right, so it's the same place. The images don't really help because they show the operator was Indigo back then.

It makes no difference though. Appeal using the template in blue text. Add a one liner that the PoFA doesn't apply, and since the land is covered by railway byelaws, the keeper cannot be held liable.
Cancel or issue a PoPLA code.

Please do make the complaints to the BPA and the keeper's MP about the misrepresentation of authority.

andrewfordays

Here's the back of the letter as well, just in case it's useful which obviously mentions Byelaw 14.