Drove away without paying for petrol - or maybe not!

londonerryan

Hi guys, me again (i've become a regular on here in recent months  ). 

I have another dilemma relating to an elderly, vulnerable chap my colleagues and i help in our roles as mental health charity workers. I was assisted with a PCN issue last time for him.

Background: this chap has very bad memory problems and often recalls things either wrongly or misplaced. So it is difficult for him, us, and others to exactly know what may or may not have occurred. He's also extremely vulnerable to unscrupulous people - he's been 'befriended' and scammed before out of a very large sum of money by a local couple. He, like many elderly people, doesn't like to burden us or others, so sometimes we don't get information about things like this until much later than it occurred and often it's too late to do anything.

He has received two letters from 'Forecourt Eye'. We assume these are the only two letters he has received (he does sometimes misplace letters). The first is dated 15th January 2025. The second is a 'FINAL NOTICE BEFORE PASSING YOUR DETAILS TO DEBT RESOLUTION AGENCY' letter dated 30th January 2025. The incident apparently occurred on 24th December 2024. Both letters are below.

The letters include a reference number, his correct car reg, and a QR code. The QR code takes us to a page which shows: a photograph of his car at a petrol pump (at a station he frequently visits near his home) and a receipt which appears to be printed from the till for £40 worth of unleaded petrol. 

They are demanding £40 for the petrol plus admin fees (£60). The 2nd reminder letter says it must be paid by 12th Feb 2025 (it's late!) or they will pass his details on to debt resolution agency. 

He seems quite sure he didn't fill up with petrol that day. He says he parked at a pump and only went in to get milk. He says the shop was quite busy. Maybe it's possible they were so busy that the person working lost track of who was filling up? 

This is difficult for us as we know his memory is very poor. So we have no idea what to suggest.

We have a few questions:

1 - The CCTV image they have produced is only of his car. Could they produce an image - and if so, why didn't they? - of him actually filling up his car? This would settle the whole conundrum. 

2 - The exact £40 fee for petrol seems very precise to us. I don't think i've ever filled up to an exact, rounded-up number before. His hands often shake so we're not convinced he would be able to fill up to an exact amount on purpose. This struck us as being odd. Maybe they rounded-up from a certain lower amount?

3 - Is there a way to prove that a particular car received or particular pump put out petrol at a certain time? After all, they seem adamant it was his car which received the petrol. But we wonder if maybe the car before or after him received the petrol or maybe the shop was busy and thus they applied somebody else's petrol cost to him by mistake.

4 - Do 'Forecourt Eye' have the sort of reputation that parking companies have? By that, i mean is the admin fee of £60 excessive? Are their practices questionable? Do these letters comply with rules?

5 - The petrol company is SHELL LITTLE WAITROSE (then name of his local village). We're assuming it is owned/operated by Waitrose. Could this be of value to him, as he recently had two PCNs cancelled by Waitrose after he received them whilst parked at their supermarket? The store manager was very sympathetic and could see that he needed longer than the two hours maximum free parking. I'm wondering if maybe contacting Waitrose to inform them of his vulnerabilities, that they may reduce the charge just to the £40 petrol fee. (At least if he genuinely didn't get any petrol, it would 'only' be £40 and not £100). 

6 - They don't mention the fee could go up, or what the debt agency might do etc. But is there any chance the £40 + £60 admin fee will increase? I have just scanned the QR code and the amount remains £40 + £60 fee. 

7 - What is the reality of the debt agency involvement? We certainly wouldn't want him dealing with debt agencies and/or going to court. 

We're a bit worried about him being scammed/ripped off. By all means, if he owes money for petrol he is happy to pay. He actually told us today he thinks it's best he just pays to relieve him of the stress, but we said as it's been nearly two months, it's worth us asking for advice first. We have helped him - and asked for help elsewhere - with several similar situations in recent months. It's a tricky situation for all involved so we're appreciative of any advice. Thanks.

knightstyle

Ask for the video showing the whole time the car was at the pump.  Also a copy of the till roll at the time showing what was actually paid for.
Does he have legal assistance on the house insurance?

Devongardener

Whatever the outcome of this, if he is so vulnerable with such a poor memory and confusion he should not be driving!   In your charity support role can you contact his GP?  Alternatively there is a reporting section on the DVLA website.

Keep_pedalling

Devongardener said:

Whatever the outcome of this, if he is so vulnerable with such a poor memory and confusion he should not be driving!   In your charity support role can you contact his GP?  Alternatively there is a reporting section on the DVLA website.

It does sound like he is well over the time to surrender his licence. 

londonerryan

knightstyle said:

Ask for the video showing the whole time the car was at the pump.  Also a copy of the till roll at the time showing what was actually paid for.
Does he have legal assistance on the house insurance?

Well, that's what we thought would be the logical thing to do. If the CCTV shows his car, it must also have him filling up at the pump, or indeed NOT filling up at the pump. We don't know about his legal assistance, home insurance etc. I think we can probably conclude that he doesn't. 

londonerryan

@Devongardener @Keep_pedalling

I understand your concerns. We certainly wouldn't want to be dealing with any issues surrounding him in a car accident. He has been checked by his GP and passed fit to drive. I believe this has occurred more than once. I think if we felt he was an immediate threat to himself/others, we would certainly talk to him about seeing his GP again and reconsidering driving. Our particular role involves helping 65+ year olds with their mental health: improving wellbeing, engaging in activities with others, giving people support etc. We don't actually deal with the psychological aspect of people's conditions or automatically know about anybody's health diagnoses (if they wish to discuss it with us, we listen). His cognitive frailties appear to affect his memory - short and long term - but his functional skills, which would affect his driving, don't seem as affected. We assume this is why his GP passed him fit to drive.