Parking ticket due to misspelled licence plate

Parking ticket due to misspelled licence plate

Author
Discussion

richard_86

Original Poster:

13 posts

105 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
A couple of weeks ago I parked in a council car park near a cafe in Nottinghamshire. I didn't have the change, and my brother in law paid the £1 parking fee for my car on the RingGo app, because he already had it installed. When I got back to the car I had a parking ticket. I challenged this on their website and have just had a letter saying that they've rejected the claim, because my registration number had been spelled with a zero instead of an O when he paid for it.

I think this is ridiculous, and I'm not about to give them £25 because of a little error like that. This was a council car park. Apparently I can make a more formal challenge when they issue a notice to keeper.

Anyone had experience with this? The enforcement is from Notts Parking Partnership and they've been criticized in the news recently for treating it as a cash cow. If it was just a private parking ticket I'd feel a bit more confident to tell them where to go.

Scrump

22,933 posts

165 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
My father did similar, but he input the reg from his car into the ticket machine when he was driving my mother’s car!
Received a PCN from one of the parking companies.
He appealed and amazingly the PCN was cancelled.

Milner993

1,361 posts

169 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
This happened to my wife, except my wife's keying error was classed as a major keying error as the machine only recorded one character from our 5 character number plate, wife didn't check the screen before paying!

We still had our parking ticket submitted this and paid a reduced administration fee, £20, which covered the parking companies costs DVLA search and postage cost! Still a joke but such is life!

Keying error [Scenario 1]
PUBLISHED ON: 4TH MAY 2020

Overview

The parking operator issued the parking charge notice because the motorist parked without making a valid payment or having a valid permit.

Motorist’s case

The motorist explained that they did pay but entered incorrect vehicle registration details into the payment machine. The appellant provided evidence of the payment made.

Evidence

POPLA examined the evidence provided by the parking operator which included copies of the signs at the car park and a list of payments made on the day against the vehicle registration of the parked car. The signs confirmed a requirement to enter a full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras recorded the appellants car entering and exiting the car park. The list of registration plates recorded against payments made, did not include the appellant’s car which is why the PCN was issued.

Analysis

Section 17 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice covers the steps a parking operator should take when a keying error occurs. If there has been a minor keying error, for example one digit entered incorrectly, the parking operator is expected to have identified this before issuing a Parking Charge Notice. If they failed to do this, they are expected to cancel the Parking Charge Notice when the motorist appeals.

In situations where a major keying error has occurred, for example the motorist entered an entirely different registration, the parking operator is not expected to have identified this before issuing a Parking Charge Notice. it is recognised that the operator will have incurred charges in issuing a Parking Charge Notice and the Code of Practice permits that they can they seek to recover these by way of applying a modest charge of no more that £20 to the motorist.

In this instance, the motorist had made a major keying error by entering the wrong registration entirely. The parking operator had not offered to reduce the charge to a maximum of £20 when the motorist appealed. POPLA found that the operator had failed to follow the keying error guidance in the British Parking Association Code of Practice.

Outcome

POPLA allowed the appeal and required the parking operator to cancel the Parking Charge Notice because it was evident that the parking operator had failed to offer the reduced charge as required by section 17 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice.

https://www.popla.co.uk/case-studies/keying-error

Edited by Milner993 on Friday 19th July 23:02

Pica-Pica

14,450 posts

91 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
I have had this. Appeal accepted. I imagine a single cipher incorrectly entered is acceptable.

KungFuPanda

4,450 posts

177 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
I’d formally appeal at Notice to Keeper stage and then failing that, take it to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Pica-Pica

14,450 posts

91 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
Milner993 said:
This happened to my wife, except my wife's keying error was classed as a major keying error as the machine only recorded one character from our 5 character number plate, wife didn't check the screen before paying!

We still had our parking ticket submitted this and paid a reduced administration fee, £20, which covered the parking companies costs DVLA search and postage cost! Still a joke but such is life!

Keying error [Scenario 1]
PUBLISHED ON: 4TH MAY 2020

Overview

The parking operator issued the parking charge notice because the motorist parked without making a valid payment or having a valid permit.

Motorist’s case

The motorist explained that they did pay but entered incorrect vehicle registration details into the payment machine. The appellant provided evidence of the payment made.

Evidence

POPLA examined the evidence provided by the parking operator which included copies of the signs at the car park and a list of payments made on the day against the vehicle registration of the parked car. The signs confirmed a requirement to enter a full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras recorded the appellants car entering and exiting the car park. The list of registration plates recorded against payments made, did not include the appellant’s car which is why the PCN was issued.

Analysis

Section 17 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice covers the steps a parking operator should take when a keying error occurs. If there has been a minor keying error, for example one digit entered incorrectly, the parking operator is expected to have identified this before issuing a Parking Charge Notice. If they failed to do this, they are expected to cancel the Parking Charge Notice when the motorist appeals.

In situations where a major keying error has occurred, for example the motorist entered an entirely different registration, the parking operator is not expected to have identified this before issuing a Parking Charge Notice. it is recognised that the operator will have incurred charges in issuing a Parking Charge Notice and the Code of Practice permits that they can they seek to recover these by way of applying a modest charge of no more that £20 to the motorist.

In this instance, the motorist had made a major keying error by entering the wrong registration entirely. The parking operator had not offered to reduce the charge to a maximum of £20 when the motorist appealed. POPLA found that the operator had failed to follow the keying error guidance in the British Parking Association Code of Practice.

Outcome

POPLA allowed the appeal and required the parking operator to cancel the Parking Charge Notice because it was evident that the parking operator had failed to offer the reduced charge as required by section 17 of the British Parking Association Code of Practice.

https://www.popla.co.uk/case-studies/keying-error

Edited by Milner993 on Friday 19th July 23:02
Doesn’t POPLA only apply to private parking companies, and not Council operated car parks.

Milner993

1,361 posts

169 months

Friday 19th July
quotequote all
Pica-Pica said:
Doesn’t POPLA only apply to private parking companies, and not Council operated car parks.
I'm not sure, I would have thought the same rules apply, contact them and see what they say

Pica-Pica

14,450 posts

91 months

Saturday 20th July
quotequote all
Milner993 said:
Pica-Pica said:
Doesn’t POPLA only apply to private parking companies, and not Council operated car parks.
I'm not sure, I would have thought the same rules apply, contact them and see what they say
I think the clue is in the acronym: Parking On Private Land Appeals !

NeilPot

76 posts

123 months

Monday 22nd July
quotequote all
Had the same happen to me in a council run train car park, Bedford.

Paid for car parking with the old reg (yes I should have checked) and received tickets.

Appealed against the PCN, supplied evidence I previously owned the other car (old receipts / collection note when it was changed) and they cancelled the PCM.

This was all with the local council so maybe I got off lightly. The whole process took maybe 10 days to solve.

Castrol for a knave

5,287 posts

98 months

Monday 22nd July
quotequote all
Black Belt Barrister covered exactly this recently.

View was a zero for an O should not trigger a penalty.

Tommo87

4,703 posts

120 months

Monday 22nd July
quotequote all
Milner993 said:
This happened to my wife, except my wife's keying error was classed as a major keying error as the machine only recorded one character from our 5 character number plate, wife didn't check the screen before paying!

We still had our parking ticket submitted this and paid a reduced administration fee, £20, which covered the parking companies costs DVLA search and postage cost! Still a joke but such is life!
It think that paying the retrospective charge plus admin fees is a fair outcome.

Crystal balls don’t exist and other motorists or local council tax payers should not have to pay a premium just to mitigate the extra admin for inattentive people.




surveyor

18,138 posts

191 months

Monday 22nd July
quotequote all
Worth an appeal. Had to do one with Nottinghamshire when my wife picked up a fine, where the ticket had not been put on the car, or it had vanished. We only found out when they wrote to say the cheap period had timed out...

They agreed to reset it, so we paid the 14 day fine, which was perfectly reasonable.