Horizon tesco parking charge ... driver is abroad.... what is the strategy

cooln

Hi experts
I have received the Horizon tesco parking charge recently as a car keeper. The driver is a visitor from overseas and usually spends most the time in Japan, only spend vacation in the UK. The driver was not aware of the 3 hour limits for parking and had a lunch in tesco after shopping.
I notice a few potential appeal points:
1. 28 days discrepancy as discussed in many other thread
2. the notice includes two photos of the car driving in the leaving the plot. The leaving picture is very vague and literary cannot see anything rather than the car light
3. The incident happened on 27 Dec, notice issued on 6 Jan, delivered on 13 Jan, exceeding the 14 days. The law says delivered is presumed to be the 2nd working day after the notice is posted. But the Notice does not provide evidence or information on the date of post.
Furthermore, the driver is living abroad. Is it better to identify the driver and Japanese address? Would they come back to me if they do not bother to contact the driver? The driver indeed visited UK nearly every year. Would refusing to pay affect the driver negatively in anyway?
Or I try to appeal first, if fail, I identify the driver?
Thanks.

LDast

Who is the named recipient of the PCN? Is it you, the Registered Keeper or your visitor friend?

Horizon NtKs are never fully compliant with all the requirements of PoFA which means that liability cannot be transferred from the unknown driver to the known keeper. Horizon may ignore the fact that their PCN is not PoFA compliant but that shouldn't stop you appealing and if necessary defending it.

So, if your friend was driving your car, just transfer liability to your friend and give them the foreign address for service.

kryten3000

I would use the POFA fail to get this cancelled either at first appeal or POPLA, but a non-resident driver is a very useful thing to have .  Many operators will attempt to say a non-UK address is not an "address for service" but since the POFA is silent on this point it clearly is.  I've helped people win a few court cases on this exact point - that the keeper discharged their liability by providing the name and address of the driver.  It's not the keeper's problem that the driver lives out of jurisdiction

cooln

Thanks a lot. The PCN is issued to me-- the keeper. I will try to appeal on the noncompliance first. If fail I will give the driver's foreign address.

Umkomaas

cooln said:

Thanks a lot. The PCN is issued to me-- the keeper. I will try to appeal on the noncompliance first. If fail I will give the driver's foreign address.

Just check that it is non-compliant first. Horizon, from recall, have started issuing some PoFA compliant NtKs. Flash up redacted copies of the front and back of the NtK (but please leave all dates showing) if you'd like a glance-over from us. 

Coupon-mad

Not sure they have! Their new one has the 28 days error on the top back.

Umkomaas

Coupon-mad said:

Not sure they have! Their new one has the 28 days error on the top back.

You have a much better memory than me. TBH, I'm feeling I might be slowly slipping into DPD mode! 😫