To cut a long story short, I have received a parking ticket through the post today. However, my car has never been ticketed. The location is Elephant Road which I multimapped to a side-road near Elephant and Castle, London.
The letter said the car was illegally parking on 23-Dec-2005. However, the letter said I have 14 days to pay from 30-Dec-2005. I was out of the country on 23-Dec-2005 and left it with my girlfriend. She never mentioned to me that it has been ticketed and I have no reason to not believe her. I have upto 14 days from 30-Dec-2005 to pay the reduced fine of £50. Thereafter it will rise to £100.
My question is:
1) How should I deal with this? What procedures and time-frame should I follow?
2) If the car have not been ticketed, why would I received a letter now?
2) If the illegal parking was on 23-Dec-2005, surely I have upto 14 days from 23-Dec-2005 to pay the fine (which that day have been passed), is this correct? Why would they start counting the 14-day grace period from 30-Dec-2005?
4) I have read about parking attendants' dishonest behaviour in the past and saw it on BBC documentary not long ago about parking in London. Could I be a victim in this circumstances?
Thank you very much for all your help. G
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The parking attendant should have made note of the number on the tax disc which should be unique.
Best to speak to the company that issued the ticket, you should provide evidence that you were out of the country which hopefully might make them check their details.
Whatever you do don't just sit on it and hope it goes away - it won't look good if it goes all the way.
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Do you live anywhere near London? I just wondered because it's not clear from your post where you are.
Couple of silly questions: are you absolutely sure that your car was not in that street on that day, and your girlfriend's either forgotten or doesn't want to admit it? Not possible that someone else "borrowed" the car? You will of course know this better than anyone on this board, and i don't mean to question your girlfriend's integrity, but people do do some funny things.
Having eliminated the possibility that your car has legitimately picked a ticket, then there's a possibility your car has been cloned, or the ticket may have issued to a similar car with a similar reg, but miskeyed e.g. Blue Ford Focus AB51 ABC and blue Ford Focus AB51 ABG.
Try asking whoever issued the ticket and subsequent letter for further proof that it was your car, some authorities photograph the car to avoid such denials. Also tell them that a) you were abroad and b) car was at GF's (wherever that is) and take it from there.
No experience of this, it's only what i would do in the same circumstances.
Good luck!
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Mare,
what you describe happened to me in reverse! I'd parked on a yellow line as it was only valid between 0800-1830, of course I got to the car at 0820 and there was the dreaded ticket.
I left it for a day or two and got out the card ready to pay but then noticed that the registration was wrong by one digit - I rang the number and quoted the reference number and asked them to quote back the registration (just in case he'd only got it wrong on the ticket).
When they came back and quoted the incorrect number, my card went away and I very smugly told them they must have the wrong car as that wasn't my registration and hung up.
I still have the ticket on my office wall, you don't get too many trophies of that nature.
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Gazza,
A similar thing happened to me... (less the girlfriend bit, I was at work).
See - www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=18982&...e
Put in a challange soonest.
Regards,
John R @ Home
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This happened to me a few years back. Was sent a notice as my car had been booked in a restricted area in London. The vehicle registration mark was the same as mine but the model and colour of the car was different. I was at work in Basingstoke at the time of the alleged offence and my car was in the carpark. I appealed and was turned down. I appealed again enclosing a copy of the tax disc, registration document and a letter from my employers stating that I was at work in Basingstoke and that my car was in the staff carpark at the time of the parking offence. Again, no notice was taken of this and I was eventually issued with a summons. The fine was now over a £100. I appealed again - can't quite remember who to now - and was asked to attend a hearing in the District of Bow to put my case. I had to take a half day off work. The Adjudicator took one look at the documents before him, agreed that there had been a mistake with writing down the registration and dismissed the case. All this took 18 months from start to finish. This caused an awful lot of hassle at the time and also could have caused potential problems with my partner as I was supposed to be at work in Basingstoke but everyone else was saying that I was parked in a London backstreet!! Good Luck is all I can say Gazza!
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Don't they take a digi-photo at the time of ticketing now - they do in Manchester. Perhaps they can send you that, but this will prove no more than the unique ref. no off the tax disc.
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Don't they take a digi-photo at the time of ticketing now - they do in Manchester. Perhaps they can send you that, but this will prove no more than the unique ref. no off the tax disc.
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I think I would only trust the unique ref no. off the VED disc after reading this about the Manchester warden who faked the date on a digital photo to back up a wrongly issued ticket.
tinyurl.com/bmf8r
Sadly in this day and age the camera can lie only too often as digital images can be changed so easily.
My son is studying Graphic Design at college at the moment and what he can do with a couple of images, a PC and the right software in about 10 minutes is quite amazing. He recently produced a magazine page showing his friend doing some trick jumps through some woods on a moutain bike, his friend has never owned a bike and can't ride one and the bike had never been within 2000 miles of the background terrain and at no time did any image leave his PC until it was printed! Never trust a digital image of anything!
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She never mentioned to methat it has been ticketed and I have no reason to not believe her.
Your post is a little vague. Did you ask her the direct question "Did you park my car in Elephant Road"
Did she swear on a stack of bibles that she had been nowhere near Elephant Road?
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