Heathrow T5 Drop off scam

phillihp

Hello, I can't find evidence that anyone else has had this issue. I went through T5 drop off last month, tried to pay the £5 the same day but the system could not find my registration, I tried twice. I gave up that day thinking the ANPR just can't have been working, there was also very heavy fog at T5 that morning. The following day I thought I'll just double check on the payment again, this time my car was registered, so I proceeded to pay the £5, all done I thought, albeit it late, but technology failure is not my problem.....or is it?  I've now received a fine for £80, reducing to £40 if I were daft enough to pay it, within the fine are two photos of my car, but the reality is that the photo quality is so poor that the reg is barely recognisable, one photo is better than the other, but even so, it's a struggle to make out the car reg. I have a feeling that even if weather conditions affected the technology that day and prevented the system recording my car reg effectively, it's unlikely APCOA are going to admit to this for fear of further repercussions. So with this in mind, and having paid the £5 already, what is my best course of action to avoid paying the £40 or more? After all, the breach of conditions were operator technology driven. Many thanks

fisherjim

There are loads of posts about this honeytrap on here, no one pays these scammers, easy to get cancelled here's one for example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6365545/heathrow-t2-drop-off-charge-apcoa/p1

phillihp

fisherjim said:

There are loads of posts about this honeytrap on here, no one pays these scammers, easy to get cancelled here's one for example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6365545/heathrow-t2-drop-off-charge-apcoa/p1

Yes, fisherjim, I appreciate your response & I've read all the posts, but by paying the charge, albeit late, APCOA have my details & I've made it clear that I was happy to pay the £5 charge, the issue I have is that there was a blatant technology failure that prevented me paying within the Ts & Cs timeframe - possibly weather driven, so as I see it the only recourse I have is to complain to BPA, because APCOA are not going to admit that their technology failed, are they? I suspect there were a number of similar incidents due to fog that morning, which is why I was surprised not to see a similar complaint. If anyone has any input on how to successfully challenge this specific scenario, because it is distinctly different from other complaints 

fisherjim

It is not distinctly different at all, there are literally hundreds of similar posts on here about anpr problems misreads etc., it is a well known fact that anpr is not fit for purpose in car parks, the BPA even admitted in writing that it is fallible, and local authorities are banned from using it.

But this is APCOA and it won't go anywhere anyway.

Umkomaas

Just use the blue text initial appeal template from the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, first post, and add the following to it:

As your Parking Charge Notice does not comply with the requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4), you are, in law, unable to hold the registered keeper of the vehicle liable for the parking charge; 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.'

Abracadabra - APCOA will cancel. 

No need to bang on to them about photo quality, tech failure, or fog - just get this done soonest, over soonest!

Coupon-mad

Importantly...no ticking DRIVER on the appeals page.

Job done; you win.