County Court Claim received not sure on defence strategy - I beat the system!

Coupon-mad

Boat_to_Bolivia said:

alldoors said:

B789 said:

alldoors said:

B789 said:

alldoors said:

Weirdly, I opened the post to a new PCN this afternoon! I parked at Heathrow in the quick drop off (costs £5.00) and was using my husbands car which I don't normally use. Then like a numpty, but my car reg in when paying the following day and not his! 

From the experience and knowledge gained using this forum, hopefully, you will know that APCOA at Heathrow have no idea who the driver of the car is. Also, as it is on non-relevant land covered by airport bylaws, POFA does not apply and therefore liability cannot transfer from the driver to the keeper.

Appeal to APCOA without identifying the driver and explain the above. Tell them you are not obliged to identify the driver and will not be doing so. You've paid them £5 anyway.

It is guaranteed that they will cancel the PCN "as a gesture of goodwill" and tell you not to be a naughty girl in the future and to follow their rules whenever using their facilities.

Here's a link to one I made earlier: 

Another APCOA Heathrow PCN capitulation on appeal

Ah. Like a numpty I have already filled in their online appeal process which asks for your name etc! I've not seen any of the posts about Heathrow drop off and wish I had read up on it before filling that form in. I've gone through all of the terms and conditions on the sign and also read the website. Can't find anything on there about what happens if you put the wrong vehicle registration in. So, in my mind, I entered into a contract to park there as a driver and I paid the fee (which I have proof of). Should be the end of it as far as I am concerned. Reading up online the general theory is that they will try and charge me £20.00 as an admin fee. I'm not sure I want to go through 12 months of threatening letters and then defending a court case but my bloody mindfulness is making me think I should do the same again! 

What a pity. You could have saved yourself another £15-£20 as that is what they are likely to ask you to fork out because of your major input error. However, APCOA are incredibly benign and as far as we know have never progressed any PCNs to court, possibly ever and certainly not in recent years.

It's up to you how you want to progress this and how affordable you think it is to you and how badly you want to fund these scamming parking companies. You can try and appeal at POPLA but you'd need evidence based on points of law as anything else such as mitigating circumstances are not considered.

I doubt you have much of a case as you've already dropped yourself in it. However, as pointed out above, APCOA are benign and if you were to ignore it all, you would go through the process as outlined in the Newbies thread and receive the reminders and eventual DRA letters. Unless you ever get an LBC, there is nothing else you would need to do and, as already stated, APCOA never progress beyond that stage.

Thanks B789. I think I will just pay the £20.00 as it was my own stupid fault for not putting the correct registration in and they will have incurred a fee for getting my vehicle details so they wont be making that much out of me. Thanks for your time replying though as someone else will read this and take note. My family are sick of hearing about PCN's as I've been banging on about it for 11 months! Thanks again

In your shoes I'd just pay the 20 quid too, but I disagree that it was your 'own stupid fault'. 

Inputting an incorrect digit or letter is not the crime of the century. It could happen to anyone, no matter how diligent.

'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

Seconded, and thankfully the Government agree with that view, because the new statutory CoP effectively says that all keying errors are not the burden or fault of the consumer and so, issuance of PCNs should be avoided in such circumstances and cancelled without charge when appealed.

Basically, technology already exists that removes this burden from consumers, so the new Code encourages AOS members to use that or have to waste their own time & money cancelling PCNs.

B789

Well, I'm a grumpy old man who is retired and has too much time on his hands and would savour the fight to avoid funding these bottom-dwelling scammers. That's why you have have many more sensible headed regulars on here to counter the grumpy old men like wot I is. 

Coupon-mad

I'm an early-retired grumpy woman, haha!  Hell hath no fury, as the parking industry have discovered to their cost!

alldoors

Boat_to_Bolivia said:

alldoors said:

B789 said:

alldoors said:

B789 said:

alldoors said:

Weirdly, I opened the post to a new PCN this afternoon! I parked at Heathrow in the quick drop off (costs £5.00) and was using my husbands car which I don't normally use. Then like a numpty, but my car reg in when paying the following day and not his! 

From the experience and knowledge gained using this forum, hopefully, you will know that APCOA at Heathrow have no idea who the driver of the car is. Also, as it is on non-relevant land covered by airport bylaws, POFA does not apply and therefore liability cannot transfer from the driver to the keeper.

Appeal to APCOA without identifying the driver and explain the above. Tell them you are not obliged to identify the driver and will not be doing so. You've paid them £5 anyway.

It is guaranteed that they will cancel the PCN "as a gesture of goodwill" and tell you not to be a naughty girl in the future and to follow their rules whenever using their facilities.

Here's a link to one I made earlier: 

Another APCOA Heathrow PCN capitulation on appeal

Ah. Like a numpty I have already filled in their online appeal process which asks for your name etc! I've not seen any of the posts about Heathrow drop off and wish I had read up on it before filling that form in. I've gone through all of the terms and conditions on the sign and also read the website. Can't find anything on there about what happens if you put the wrong vehicle registration in. So, in my mind, I entered into a contract to park there as a driver and I paid the fee (which I have proof of). Should be the end of it as far as I am concerned. Reading up online the general theory is that they will try and charge me £20.00 as an admin fee. I'm not sure I want to go through 12 months of threatening letters and then defending a court case but my bloody mindfulness is making me think I should do the same again! 

What a pity. You could have saved yourself another £15-£20 as that is what they are likely to ask you to fork out because of your major input error. However, APCOA are incredibly benign and as far as we know have never progressed any PCNs to court, possibly ever and certainly not in recent years.

It's up to you how you want to progress this and how affordable you think it is to you and how badly you want to fund these scamming parking companies. You can try and appeal at POPLA but you'd need evidence based on points of law as anything else such as mitigating circumstances are not considered.

I doubt you have much of a case as you've already dropped yourself in it. However, as pointed out above, APCOA are benign and if you were to ignore it all, you would go through the process as outlined in the Newbies thread and receive the reminders and eventual DRA letters. Unless you ever get an LBC, there is nothing else you would need to do and, as already stated, APCOA never progress beyond that stage.

Thanks B789. I think I will just pay the £20.00 as it was my own stupid fault for not putting the correct registration in and they will have incurred a fee for getting my vehicle details so they wont be making that much out of me. Thanks for your time replying though as someone else will read this and take note. My family are sick of hearing about PCN's as I've been banging on about it for 11 months! Thanks again

In your shoes I'd just pay the 20 quid too, but I disagree that it was your 'own stupid fault'. 

Inputting an incorrect digit or letter is not the crime of the century. It could happen to anyone, no matter how diligent.

'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

Not one of the numbers or letters I gave as my registration was correct! Forgot I was driving my husbands vehicle. 

Coupon-mad

Yep, and the Government says in future (under the new regulated regime from some time in 2024) all such errors will see PCNs cancelled.  Systems shouldn't rely on motorists to input a VRM the ANPR system already knows; there is tech that can avoid it.