Parking Eye - Cloned Plate, or misread number plate?

MissDebtFreeWannabe

Hello, I wonder if someone can please guide me with a PCN.

I have received a PCN for Aldi Carpark in Dinnington, near Sheffield. I was definitely not parked there, I live in Pembrokeshire West Wales, and that is where my car was parked at the time. I have never even been to Dinnington! The PCN shows two very dark photos, one entering and one exiting the car park. On one photo it 'could' be my number plate, but on the second photo the last letter looks like a 'V', and not a 'Y' which is the last letter of my car registration.

Either the photo is not great and they have the plate read wrong, or my number plate has been cloned. I can't at this point in time find any evidence of where my car was at the time, so I would like some advice of how I should respond.

The notice I have received is a reminder, but I didn't receive the original notice, and so the 14 day period has elapsed.

I am not happy with reporting my number plate as cloned to the Police and DVLA if this is more of mistake on the ANPR.

Can anyone advise?

Thank you,

Missy

Brie

Any other "obvious" proof it's not your car? Wrong shape, stickers (or not) on the wind screen or bumper? If they are dark photos likely the colour won't be obvious.

Do you have a tracker on your phone that might help you with your location? How about your credit card/bank statements showing you making a purchase somewhere?

Likely it's a misread as cloning is relatively rare as far as I'm aware.

MissDebtFreeWannabe

Hi Brie,

Thank you for responding.

No, both photos are pretty black apart from the number plate and headlights, so no car colour etc.

The day in question was a Sunday and both myself and partner were in work, which I can get something written from my manager to say I was in work, but thats it. No tracker on my phone, and no credit card / bank card transactions on that day either :-(

Gr1pr

Appeal as keeper stating that your vehicle VRM AB12CDE was nnnn miles away in Wales on that date and was not involved in any alleged breach of the parking contract on that private property. Tell them to closely check the photos again because you believe that its an ANPR misread and they have breached GDPR by obtaining your personal details unnecessarily, plus its a breach of the Joint Parking Code of Practice too in not checking the details correctly

You demand that the NTK PCN is cancelled with an apology too

Or words to that effect ( you quote your own VRM. , so adapt my rough template above )

pseudodox

This happened to me - cameras read a C as a G some 200 miles away at a place I have never been within 150 miles of. Plus my car is a small green hatchback & the photo was of a white van. I wrote to both the parking company & DVLA in very strong terms. It all got cancelled but no apology was ever forthcoming. @Gr1pr is spot on with the response you should make.

A previous erroneous charge for parking on Westminster Bridge ( my car has never been south of Stoke on Trent) was revoked when my then employer wrote to say not only was I sitting at the opposite desk to him on the day in question but he could see my car in the car park next to his.

MissDebtFreeWannabe

Thank you both @Gr1pr and @pseudodox - excellent help, that is exactly what I needed!

Thank you, have a fabulous weekend! :-)

James_Poisson

ANPR cameras hone in on the VRN they are not bothered about the vehicle itself, but they make mistakes PPC systems have no standards in place and they can stick any old camera on a pole, the COP only states it must be "fit for purpose". The police ANPR systems which are governed by regulations are only 95-98% accurate the joint COP has no such standards.

After the capture stage Optical Character Recognition converts an image in to text and this is the next failure point.

Rain, dirt, number plate screws, cracks, reflection, light intensity, leaves etc etc all play a part in misreads and the OCR can only do the best with what it gets fed, manual checks are then supposed to be carried out according to the joint COP but of course there is no incentive for that and who checks the checks?

1505grandad

"ANPR cameras hone in on the VRN they are not bothered about the vehicle itself, but they make mistakes PPC systems have no standards in place and they can stick any old camera on a pole, the COP only states it must be "fit for purpose"."

However the unregulated ppssCoP states:-

"19.3 Parking operators must inform their ATA if they apply to the DVLA for an electronic facility to request keeper data from the DVLA and use their membership of the ATA and compliance with the Code as evidence of their intention to keep to DVLA procedures."

One of the procedures in the KADOE contract states:-

"B7.2. The Customer shall ensure before relying on any item of Data that the Data provided matches the information in the request (for example, so that the model, type and colour of the vehicle match) and shall not seek to recover payment where the Data provided does not match the vehicle information in the request."

Half_way

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894790#Comment_81894790

Incoming CMA complaint?

Coupon-mad

ICO complaint I'd say.

MissDebtFreeWannabe

Thank you all, really helpful as always!

@Coupon-mad who is ICO? I might need to complain if my appeal doesn't work. 👍️