PCN paid by hire co. despite valid ticket displayed, no appeal allowed by POPLA or Parking Operator

DPkindone

The hire car company was (in my opinion unjustifiably) issued a PCN by a parking operator on private temple land despite my having a valid ticket and leaving prior to ticket expiry time.  I consider it a scam on rental car hirers.

I have a witness statement from my friend who entered the car park after me on 6/11/23.  We read out my number plate in International Phonetic Alphabet, we were careful to key in the correct registration number because it was a new hire car.  I have a photo of his ticket bought immediately after mine and what is probably a sequential number of his ticket bought immediately after mine.  We left the car park 12 minutes before the ticket expiry.

The PCN of £60 was paid by Europcar, plus £30 admin and VAT on whole invoice of £18, total £108 on 23/11/22.  The first I knew of it was an invoice from Europcar on 6th December after the payment was made.  I wrote to the operator on 7th December, they had a photo of the car arriving and leaving the car park but no photo of dashboard.  My dashboard would have shown a valid ticket.

The administrators for the temple who own the land say it's nothing to do with them.

The PCN provider refused to issue a verification code or allow an appeal despite me confirming I was the hirer and was disputing the charge with my credit card company.  POPLA said that the fine had been paid so I couldn't appeal.
This creates the situation that any parking operator can issue PCN's to hire car companies and the hirer has no right of appeal if validly parked.
The ongoing hire car is provided after a car accident, Europcar are validly claiming a cost they have paid out, so I don't want to fall out with them over a credit card dispute.

In order to reclaim my money is it best to pay the cost charged to my credit card, and take the parking operator to MoneyClaimsOnline for issuing a PCN without evidence and not allowing an appeal or verification number despite my parking validly, or to pursue a credit card dispute with the hirer?
Thank you so much for your time.

MovingForwards

Ask on the parking board:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking

DPkindone

Hi MovingForwards,
thanks for your advice. 
I was going to do that but I saw that AskanExpert was doing a session on scams and I had thought I was posting on Askanexpert.

Coupon-mad

We are the experts on private parking charges and your thread has been moved here now.

Our advice would be to get your credit card provider to refuse the payment as unauthorised.  Really simple. Job done.  No falling out with Europcar.  This was NOT VALID because it wasn't a penalty

Suing the parking firm for your losses is certainly a possibility.

But that's far more complicated, and you'd need to send a Letter before Claim to the PPC first asking for full disclosure of why the PCN was issued and a copy of the machine log including the sequential payment made of £x just before the friend's ticket.

Which PPC?

DPkindone

Hi Coupon-mad
Thanks so much for your advice and time spent. I will try that today.