Appeal failed with APCOA

Ofe23

Hi, I park my car for two day stints at our local railway station on a semi regular basis.  This time I was rushing to catch a train so decided to make payment once on the station platform (obviously my mistake here). As I left the car park, I fell in the road and after being picked up by a car driver, managed to carry on although I was a little shaken, bruised and bleeding.  Paying for parking went out of my head until the next day when I suddenly remembered.  I then paid for two days, which although didn't match the dates I was there, I thought at least I have paid the correct amount. I couldn't see any information on how to make a late payment on their website and thought that at least I wasn't trying to get out of paying.  A month later, I received a PCN which I appealed against, giving them as much evidence as I could and hoping to appeal to their sympathetic side. All to no avail however,  they have refused to retract the fine as they say my payment was made after the ticket was issued. Naturally I'm disappointed by their lack of empathy but also cross that I did pay for parking and still have to pay the PCN. They say  I cannot challenge this again. Do I have any grounds here? Many thanks

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

I expect you gave away the driver's identity when you appealed, which is a shame as APCOA can't hold the keeper liable, so appealing as keeper would have been a sure-fire way to win.

Never mind, it's only APCOA who currently are about the most benign of the unregulated parking companies.

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner and your MP. If the car park is a railway asset then it will probably be owned by Network Rail, or whatever they are called now, or the train operating company. Start with the station master and go up to the CEO if necessary. Give them the PCN number or a copy of the PCN (never the original).

If that fails, either appeal to PoPLA using all the standard points available to you from the third post of the sticky Announcements for NEWBIES, or ignore. To date, APCOA have never done court, and they are unlikely to start with a one off PCN where the motorist had mitigating circumstances and actually paid for parking.
Ignore powerless debt collectors. 

Note, ignoring is only advised for this PPC, or if the keeper lives in Scotland or NI. 

troublemaker22

APCOA is “benign” only in the sense that they don’t take cases as far as court. But they do engage debt collectors to send threatening letters adding mythical extra charges and generally running the whole debt collection threatogram charade. So prepare to receive a lot of waste paper, and don’t cave in under the pressure.  

Can you show us the front and back of the PCN and exactly what you wrote in your appeal (leaving out in both cases and your name, address, vehicle number and and PCN reference)?

Coupon-mad

You won't be paying it.   No worries at all.

Le_Kirk

Tell them if they cancel the PCN, you will not sue them for their negligence in not maintaining the surface of the car park/steps (or wherever the incident happened) causing you to slip/fall/trip!

Ofe23

Front of PCN
(Removed by Forum Team)

Ofe23

Back of PCN

Coupon-mad

Oh dear.

If you'd come here first, you'd have won.

Interesting that this was at a Station but it's a 'Parking Charge Notice' not a Penalty.  Unusual.

Ofe23

I honestly thought they would be decent once I explained and proved I'd paid.  I'm quite stunned actually... and the excuse they couldn't retract it as the ticket was issued before I paid is ridiculous.  

porridgestation

It appears you parked on National Rail land (Shrewsbury Station - Howard Street Car Park) which should be subject to Railway Bylaws, not private land. Even if driver admission has been established, this should have been a Penalty Charge Notice for breaching railway byelaw 14(4)(i) not a Parking Charge Notice. They usually only have six months to chase, but it seems they've issued the wrong one in the first place?

@Coupon-mad might be able to verify.

National Rail Car Parks for Shrewsbury:
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/shrewsbury/
Howard Street - Operator: APCOA

Entrance to car park:
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.7120469,-2.7489648,3a,50.1y,42.58h,74.92t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sVgkJ2RplW_n9fTSqaWcYbA!2e0!5s20221201T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

troublemaker22

Sorry to be pedantic but the terms are Penalty Notice (for byelaws tickets) and Parking Charge Notice or Notice to Keeper (for contractual tickets).  But that's water under the bridge now.

APCOA chose to go with a Notice to Keeper on this occasion and I think it's for the following reason. POPLA upholds appeals against railway Penalty Notices that aren't delivered within the timetable set out in Appendix G to the BPA Code of Practice. Unless a windscreen ticket was put on the car on the day of parking (and they'd show it in the photos if they'd done that) the deadline is 14 days.

So the sneaky buggers sent a notice to keeper instead, knowing that it can't be enforced against the keeper unless the keeper admits that they were also the driver.  Unfortunately, our OP fell into the trap and wrote them a note saying that they were driving.  Which is why they lost at POPLA, because POPLA doesn't do mitigating circumstances.

The good news is that the loss at POPLA isn't binding. APCOA can't enforce payment except by going to court and winning the case - and APCOA very rarely (if ever takes) cases to court.  Instead they hire scumbag debt collection companies to try to scare the victim into paying - but it's all bark no bite, so long as you show them who's boss.

I suggest that @Ofe23 does nothing till the first begging letter arrives and then comes here for advice on how to deal with it.  I'm sure they won't make the same mistake of shooting themselves in the foot before seeking advice.