Fined after paying in wrong car park

[Babkun]

Last month I received a fine by post for not paying for parking at the Car Park at the Centre, High Street, Polegate, BN266AQ. I thought it was a mistake until I realised that I had paid at the park meter of the adjacent car park, Indigo. I had no intention of not paying for parking, as I knew I would not return to my car within about four hours, well over the two hours free parking. I wrote a letter (attached) to the Civil Enforcement LTD but my appeal was rejected. They gave me the option to pay the full amount of the fine (£40) or to appeal with POPLA, which I did. On 03/11/18, I received a reply from Civil Enforcement stating my POPLA appeal had been unsuccessful and requested I paid the fine, £100. After doing some research online, I found that other people were fined for making exactly the same mistake, paying in the parking meter in the Indigo adjacent car park (station car park). I am quite happy to pay the parking ticket but I resent having to pay the fine for making a genuine mistake. I am disappointed they rejected my appeal and it seems to me that paying the fine would be an admission of a wilful intent to offend, when all I did was to stupidly pay (£1.75 more than if I had paid at the correct parking meter) in the wrong car park. Advice welcome Thank you ReplyForward

[Amethyst]

Is there actually a payment machine in the car park you'd parked in or was it just a 'pay by phone' thing? ( can only see a machine in the station side of the car park but Google don't seem to have been since 2016 )