PCN issued to wrong registration number.

[Loafmanuk]

Hi all, my first post on this forum

 

Just wondering if anyone has any advice that may help me. I have been issued a penalty chanrge notice for parking in a car park without a valid ticket. The reason for this is that the machine would not take the £2 coin I tried to use to buy a ticket. I placed a very visible note on the dashboard clearly stating that I had gone to get change, but when I got back (10 minutes later) the PCN had been issued. I thought this a little unfair but was not at all surprised at the greed and ignorance.

 

The thing is, the PCN has been printed on a machine, but has my registration printed incorrectly. Obviously as it is printed, it cannot be claimed that I have misread it. Other info on the PCN includes: Make of car, colour of car, and tax disc number.

 

The question I am asking (as I am wanting to dispute this notice anyway) is would I be better off not making any responce at all? I mean after all the PCN is not issued to my cars registration. Or do I contact them and risk them chasing me for payment?

 

Is this PCN fatally flawed from the start?

 

I appreciate any responces or experiences people may have.

 

Thanks in advance, Loafman

[Loafmanuk]

Forgot to say, they have missed a digit out of my reg number(one of the numbers), not printed one of the characters wrong.

 

Thanks.

[crem]

You should be safe to do nothing at this stage.

 

If it is a valid council PCN, then they will seek your details from the DVLA. As the reg is wrong, they will not find you will they. If they go to the bother of trying to trace you through your tax disk, then they will fail anyway as the PCN is fatally flawed by the error in the reg number.

 

If it is a PCN scamvoice, then you should do nowt anyway and just ignore them. They won't even be able to trace you as they can only use the reg number for details as far as I know.

[Loafmanuk]

Thanks for the swift reply, it was issued by BEDFORD PARKING SERVICES, who, from what I can gather, are an agent acting on behalf of Bedford County Council.

 

I did assume that it would be fatally flawed. I see there is a lot of scary wording on the notice but I guess that is the usual bully boy tactics. There is also no mention on the PCN of the notice that I placed on my dashboard as an attempt to negotiate the situation prior to any conflict. Am I right in my understanding that ignoring (or overlooking) an attempt to negotiate, is seen as a form of conflict, usually frowned upon by courts etc? Just a thought.......

[Loafmanuk]

Over 2 months on and I have heard nothing. Guess that's a good sign....