Bus Lane PCN with a twist

Soldato
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On 20/04/21 I had a enforcement officer on my doorstep to serve a warrant of possesion for the amount of £581 or goods to the value, which was the first I had ever heard of it. I had not recieved any paperwork for either the original PCN nor the paperwork informing me of court proceedings. This turned out to be because the DVSA took 7 weeks to update my V5C & the alleged offence took place the week after I had sent off to get it updated.

I asked the enforcement officer if he would provide the proof of the claim and when he logged into the system the PCN number was "not valid/found".

He went away and said that he'd get it looked into and contact me further. As promised he contacted me with the the photos & more importantly the time, date and location of the alleged offence, 12/12/2019, 15:19 in Coventry

There were a number of issues with the PCN evidence:

1. The car in the photos, whilst the same make and model, was a different variant. Mine was an ST and the offender's was a base model, determined by the lack of ST bodywork
2. I've never been to Coventry
3. At the time and date myself & my car were in work's secured car park until 10 mins before the offence, 110 miles away. Thankfully my employer has offered to make a declaration to that effect.

The enforcement guy was brilliant tbh, he gave me loads of info on how to appeal the warrant via statutory declaration and got his office to temporarily suspend the enforcement till I had sorted the appeal.

I appealed and now I have an order revoking the warrant of possesion & the case has been sent back to Coventry Council.

Now here's the thing.

The only way that Cov council have of tracking my address is the VRM on the photo, which as of 5 weeks ago was confirmed by DVSA as scrapped.

What's the chances that Cov council are going to try and chase this, given that as of the 23/04/21 (date appeal lodged) it had been 499 days since the alleged offence.
 
Soldato
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Many councils seem to be run by morons. But if it isn't your car and you have proof of being elsewhere (and they can't proove you were there) there isn't much they can do.

I think they only get 6 months to send out the first letter. If they can't show that it even exists someone might be trying it on.
 
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Soldato
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Fools tried it on me too. I was gonna pay out as well since i do park in the area they trying to do me for only my 7 year old noticed something about the small pic they had of the car.
Kiddo: "daddy wheres the back doors on the car?"
Sure enough car in pic was a 2 door and mine was 4 door.
Parking ticket firms is run by clowns employing monkeys.
 
Soldato
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Given the evidence of your appeal I would like to think they would realise the mistake is on their side.

I hope so, but it's a council & when they got no reply the first time they never bothered to check the address details again. One would think that would be a basic due diligence check before bothering the courts.

Many councils seem to be run by morons. But if it isn't your car and you have proof of being elsewhere (and they can't proove you were there) there isn't much they can do.

I think they only get 6 months to send out the first letter. If they can't show that it even exists someone might be trying it on.

They did send the letter out within the time frame (so they claim) but they sent it to the old address & never bothered to check it when they recieved it back as 'not known at this address'. I know for a fact that it was returned by the new occupiers of my old address as I have spoken to them (son of our former next door neighbour so I know them).
 
Soldato
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I hope so, but it's a council & when they got no reply the first time they never bothered to check the address details again. One would think that would be a basic due diligence check before bothering the courts.



They did send the letter out within the time frame (so they claim) but they sent it to the old address & never bothered to check it when they recieved it back as 'not known at this address'. I know for a fact that it was returned by the new occupiers of my old address as I have spoken to them (son of our former next door neighbour so I know them).

Yes but they would have to proove that if they really want to chase it :)

If they didn't keep a record of it (probably didn't as they couldn't even find the PCN) then bad luck for them.
 
Soldato
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Last week I got a letter of Birmingham council saying I've been driving in the new low smoke area. I've never been to Birmingham in my car, so gave them a call and the guy basically said, our anpr cameras are rubbish and they keep mis-reading reg plates
 
Soldato
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Last week I got a letter of Birmingham council saying I've been driving in the new low smoke area. I've never been to Birmingham in my car, so gave them a call and the guy basically said, our anpr cameras are rubbish and they keep mis-reading reg plates

Wow thats so council :D

If they are gonna do something, do it badly.

But this probably means Birmingham is going to be sending out bills to the wrong people all over the country now that its live.
 
Associate
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Cotswolds
Last week I got a letter of Birmingham council saying I've been driving in the new low smoke area. I've never been to Birmingham in my car, so gave them a call and the guy basically said, our anpr cameras are rubbish and they keep mis-reading reg plates

Interesting - I got one of these too and I did drive in the 'nam but I didn't think in their BS money generating zone. It's not live yet, so I've ignored it. And if I'm back (which I will be) it's for work so I will be expensing it.

More taxes. If it wasn't for work, I'd never go to the place..horrid!
 
Soldato
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Interesting - I got one of these too and I did drive in the 'nam but I didn't think in their BS money generating zone. It's not live yet, so I've ignored it. And if I'm back (which I will be) it's for work so I will be expensing it.

More taxes. If it wasn't for work, I'd never go to the place..horrid!

It was a letter saying that my car has been in the zone and when it's live these will be my charges

The one that came in on Tuesday this week?

As above. Was about 3 weeks ago.
 
Soldato
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Likelihood? Zero. The same way Gloucester Constabulary have given up trying to bring a court date against me for speeding over 18 months because the V5 was at an address we moved from 3 years ago, and COVID meant no court appearances.
 
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