UKPC parking charge - Incorrect arrival and departure time.

PinkFluffyDee

Hi, I have received a charge letter today through the post. UKPC have said I was parked (England) overnight for 19 hours and 52 minutes and gave “proof” of an arrival time which was actually me leaving the shops the evening before, and then again leaving the following day - so two leaving photos, not arrival and leaving. I have proof of my locations via bank statements, receipts, texts with my daughter asking where I was going before I entered the car park, life 360 driving history with times and distances , google map history and also the fact I have children, partner and a dog that would not happily sleep overnight in our car in a car park. I also specifically recall these two separate times I went to this retail park two days in a row as my daughter had just come back from Cornwall, and as it was the evening before her last day at middle school she wanted to get dime bars for her friends, markers for signing a school top and a bottle of something for her teacher.  And then the following day we went back to do our usual weekly grocery shopping and I have the receipt showing the time 8 minutes prior to the time of the photo of us leaving.

So what I’m asking before I make any contact with UKPC, because I’ve seen a lot of technical/legal verbiage that I don’t understand, is do I just ask for actual proof of my arrival on the initial day (which I know they don’t have) or appeal it with a specific template? Do I contact the landowners of the car park or the shops I went in so I can ask them for cctv footage of me?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

LDast

Have you actually read the "verbiage" that is the Newbies/FAQ thread? You are the victim of a "double dip" error. You may want to have a read of the new "joint" Code of Practice to see what they tell their members to do about "double dip" errors.

The Single Code of Practice section 7.3 which is all about how they can and cannot use photographic evidence and it shows they have not complied with their own AoS CoP, therefore the PCN has been issued incorrectly.

7.3. Use of photographic evidence

Photographic evidence must not be used by a parking operator as the basis for issuing a parking charge unless:

a) at least one of the images captured includes a clear record of the vehicle’s VRM to which the parking charge is deemed to apply;

b) the images bear an accurate time and date stamp;

c) the image(s) show, where appropriate, the pay and display tariff receipt as displayed

or not being visible; and

d) images generated by ANPR or CCTV have been subject to a manual quality control check, including the accuracy of the timestamp and the risk of keying errors.

NOTE 1: The manual quality control check for remote ANPR and CCTV systems is particularly important for detecting issues such as “double dipping”, where image camera systems might have failed to accurately record each instance when a vehicle enters and leaves controlled land, and for checking images that might have been taken other than by a trained parking attendant (see Clause 15). The manual check might also reveal where “tailgating” – vehicles passing a camera close together – is a problem, suggesting relocation of the camera might be necessary.

So, they have not subjected their ANPR images to a manual quality control check.

A simple appeal as the keeper, not the driver, explaining that UKPC have breached their own Joint CoP in that they have obviously failed to manually check their ANPR images as required in section 7.3, because this is a case of "double dipping" which can be proved by  [whatever evidence you say you have].

You should tell them to do a manual check for "orphan" images around [the time you originally departed] and [the second time you arrived]. Also inform them that they should now cancel the PCN or send you a POPLA code where they will be put to strict proof that they did carry out all the required manual checks of their ANPR images.

Le_Kirk

Yep, as above, the keeper did nothing, the driver did all of the parking and shopping; do not write nothing using "I" or "me", "my" etc.

PinkFluffyDee

Thanks for both of your replies. Would I be better to do the appeal online or by post? Or does it make no difference?

Gr1pr

Definitely online these days 

Half_way

Who's car park was this?

There should be a zero tolerance for parking companies, and the landowners who allow the parking companies to operate that use ANPR systems which in turn result in "double-dipping"