Unpaid PCN

[SweetApple]

When I entered the car park my car registration was photographed. It was 7.35am. I parked up and went over to the pay station to get the location details for the app and the cost. Went back to car and logged onto the app. Discovered that the app was saying £8.00 per hour but the machine said £3.00. Thought it might be a mistake so tried logging off app, finding the location through a different route. Several attempts later it was still saying £8.00. I then checked with a few other people and they were saying the same. Finally, I thought I’m going to have to either pay over the odds or scrabble around for the cash. I finally cobbled the change together (I only had notes in my purse - found the change in the car and computer bag). Got a valid ticket, timed at 7.51am and returned exactly at the allotted time and left the car park (even though I’d wanted to stay for 2 hours instead of the 1). The 15 minutes it took me to get a valid ticket is what they are penalising me for. I contested which you could only do by email. Their denial went into my junk inbox by email not by post. It was only subsequent letters that alerted me to the fact that I’d missed the 28 days to submit to the claim resolution agency. Skip forwards and I now have a county court letter which I mustn’t ignore. I feel that I’m right to fight this claim and I have a suspicion that they deliberately ensure the app is wrong just so this sort of thing happens. But I don’t want it to affect my credit rating if I lose. What do I do next? Pay up (now £175) or go to court?

[Irena]

I’m in a similar situation, but I pulled into one not knowing it was an ANPR while my 4 yr old daughter was sick in the rear of my car. I received the court claim notice today, which I intend to dispute. Any legal advice anyone has which could help us would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.