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Hope people can help with this. Back in 2011 someone I was having lunch with got a PCN while parked at a small retail park. It seemed an error, so we queried it with the attendant who said we should contact the firm via email and attach a scan of a receipt (proving we had used the park) as evidence. As I had access to a scanner, I offered to send the email (assuming this would solve the problem). To my disappointment the firm said the attendant was wrong, and the charge remained. But bizarrely because I had emailed them they then pursued ME for the PCN - it seems they never got round to contacting the DVLA to get details of the registered keeper. At the time the advice on sites like this was to ignore unreasonable PCNs, so I did.
Today I received a letter from the collection agency to whom they have handed over my case, so I rang them to explain the situation. They said the only way to avoid having to pay would be for me to 'prove' I was not the registered keeper, by telling them who the registered keeper actually was. I'm not inclined to do this, and I can't see I have any legal obligation to do so. The fact they assumed I was the driver/keeper back in 2011 was an error on their part, not a deception on the part of myself or the keeper/ driver.
The other odd elements of this case are that a) they appear not to have treated my email as an appeal, and b) the person who to whom they should have been writing has had no opportunity to appeal.
I'm assuming if this ends up in the Country Court it will get thrown out on the basis that, self-evidently, I am not the 'defendant'. But I'm slightly spooked by the idea that I have to go out of my way to prove this and/or will be viewed as having some liability for not having gone out of my way to correct the firm's failure to follow it's own process. Any thoughts?
Today I received a letter from the collection agency to whom they have handed over my case, so I rang them to explain the situation. They said the only way to avoid having to pay would be for me to 'prove' I was not the registered keeper, by telling them who the registered keeper actually was. I'm not inclined to do this, and I can't see I have any legal obligation to do so. The fact they assumed I was the driver/keeper back in 2011 was an error on their part, not a deception on the part of myself or the keeper/ driver.
The other odd elements of this case are that a) they appear not to have treated my email as an appeal, and b) the person who to whom they should have been writing has had no opportunity to appeal.
I'm assuming if this ends up in the Country Court it will get thrown out on the basis that, self-evidently, I am not the 'defendant'. But I'm slightly spooked by the idea that I have to go out of my way to prove this and/or will be viewed as having some liability for not having gone out of my way to correct the firm's failure to follow it's own process. Any thoughts?
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