Sixt Admin fee for incorrectly issued speeding fine

atomlad

Hi all

Im from Australia staying in UK/Europe for a few months and have hired a car from Sixt for a few weeks while in Surrey. The other day I received an email from Sixt saying they have passed on my details to the Greater Manchester Police for the attached speeding fine, and charged me £40 admin me.  Suffice to say I was nowhere Manchester at the time, looking at photo of the offending car via the details available on the fine the license plate is not clear and the tailight configuration is completely different to the Skoda I've hired.

I've contacted Sixt and said its clearly the wrong car, included photos of the actual car I'm renting and the photo of the offending car and can they tell GMP this. They replied that they cant, its between me and GMP and they wont refund the the admin fee until GMP drop the fine. Annoying. The issue is Sixt gave GMP my Australian drivers license address and I wont be going home for a few months as I travel around the UK/Europe. 

Any advice on how I can resolve this?  I was thinking of just letting the GMP chase me in Australia but thought the better of it, I'm not at fault and I dont want to pay the £40 sixt fee.

I tried calling GMP but couldnt get through. Mistakes happen, hopefully once GMP realise what has happened they will withdraw the fine but I'm more annoyed at Sixt for not doing any reading/checking of the fine and not willing to help at all, despite their fee.

ideas appreciated! 

Johnersh

Best option to try and escape the Sixt fee? Notify your credit card provider and dispute the charge. Now it IS the problem of Sixt to fix.

As you say photo the VIN of the vehicle supplied (usually visible in the front windscreen) which is unique to the vehicle and type and retain the photos you have. Those can be supplied to establish that your name should never have been linked to this, let alone your card charged. 

The prosecution is most unlikely to be pursued out of jurisdiction.  Prosecutions only apply to the driver of the vehicle. That's not you. May as well email GMP and Sixt to tell them: 
cto.enquiries@gmp.police.uk


We know ANPR is unreliable... https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/18/surrey-writing-on-womans-jumper-landed-couple-with-fine-when-she-walked-in-bus-lane-15439916/ 

atomlad

Excellent - thank you John for you advice!

Re the photo VIN - how would that help now? it may help if subsequently I need to prove it wasnt the car involved but GMP wouldnt have the VIN of the car in the photo their ANPR camera took? I took photos of the rear of the hire car which shows completely different tail light configuration compared to the ANPR photo.

Re the admin fee, Sixt T&Cs state " If a fine or charge is sent to us because you haven’t paid a charge or complied with the law, we will take payment". Clearly I havent broken the law, however I'm concerned Sixt could just continue to say "GMP say its the car you have hired, take it up with them" and any cc dispute would fail!

thank you again

Johnersh

The VIN is very much a save it for later point. 

I generally find my cc provider pretty good. If the photo of the offender and the rental cars are clear enough, you should be OK. If they've already billed their admin fee, you can challenge it immediately and they will credit the sum while the dispute is addressed.

(I'm assuming for these purposes that Aussie consumer credit law works in a similar way. Sadly I'm not licensed to practice in NSW just yet) 

Further I assume the sixt email to you attached a copy of the notice of intended prosecution to them. You don't say, Is it even the same model/brand of car? Have the plates been cloned, in which case they need to file a police report, or is it just a rubbish photo? All of that goes to how easy this'll be to get rid of. 

atomlad

Hi John- Sixt did attached notice of prosecution, which only had the license plate number of the hire I have. However using details in the notice I logged on to the GMP website where I could see the photo(license plate not clear) and they also list the full make/model car. As the ANPR picture is so grainy and the license plate cant be seen, I assume the GMP operator transcribed the license plate number incorrectly so make/model of the car they have just comes from the incorrect transcription.  The photo is clear enough to show a completely different tail light configuration of the car though (picture was at night)

Thanks again, will dispute the charge and tell Sixt they need to resolve.  

Le_Kirk

whilst we don't normally deal with speeding issues on this site (Pepipoo is the best place for that) a question struck me; what were the dates of the commencement of your hire period and the alleged speeding event?  Could it be a crossover of hirers and it is the previous hirer that they want?

Jenni_D

A reasonable question ... although the OP says the photo evidence is clear that that it's not his vehicle (that he has hired and still has).

atomlad

Hi Le_Kirk - no the speeding event occurred during the period of my car hire. The car is a different car though. 

I'm annoyed Sixt arent willing to even look at the ANPR photo after my escalation to them, they would be able to see the license plate number is blurred and the taillight configuration is completely different.  

Johnersh

Can you Dropbox the photos (cropped tightly, no personal info), genuinely interested to see the images. I reckon from the tail light config, someone on here will be able to confirm a make/model, which will make this even easier to dispute.

I'd also be amazed if Sixt don't GPS track their vehicles. If so they'll have actual knowledge of where the car has been. This is their problem and no doubt it'll be a Hertz rental next time... 

atomlad

Thank you John for your ongoing help!

Link here

dropbox.com/sh/5hv6yfjeljy691e/AADE5nZ1OxR56ykXP61yq5VYa?dl=0 

Le_Kirk

Your link made live: -
https://dropbox.com/sh/5hv6yfjeljy691e/AADE5nZ1OxR56ykXP61yq5VYa?dl=0
From a brief view of the car in the garage/car port and a squint at the alleged speeding photos, those cars are different rear light configurations!