Penalty Charge notice not received in post from council + received someone else's!

[BingLi]

Hi guys,

 

I had a good read of the thread titled: "Penalty Charge notice not received in post from council" (sorry I can't post the link as I havn't made enough posts on this forum)

 

It was really useful because Tunde's situation was very similar to what I have now. Back in November I strayed into a bus lane in Swindon, and yesterday received a Penalty Charge Cert. for £90, on a letter which claimed I had been sent correspondence before. However, I had not received anything before.

 

Also, in the envelope they sent me there was a similar Charge Cert addressed to a different person, at a completely different address!

 

I called up a Swindon Council number and spoke to a bloke about the issue of only receiving this certificate as the first correspondence. I forgot to mention the thing about receiving someone else's letter. He said in quite a stern tone that it'd be just my word against theirs and I'd have to wait for the next letter, which will be some sort of court-style charge recovery letter.

 

I then heeded the advice of the other thread I linked to, and sent an email in a similar style. Here it is:

I am writing to you with regards to the attached letter received via post on the ... January 2016, dated ... 2016. The charge certificate states that the offence was detected on the ... 2015 and that you sent a notification to me, which according to you, I refused to since pay hence the increase in the penalty charge to £90.

 

 

I would like to inform you that I NEVER received any notification prior to this charge certificate. I would like you to therefore please send me the initial notification; I have no issue paying the original fine, but it would be very unfair and unjust to pay an increased fee since I did not receive any notification from you. It is also important to note that the said offence was committed in November; I would like to know the date the penalty charge letter was sent to me.

ALSO, you can see in the attachment that in the same document sent to me there was also a letter meant for a completely different person who I don't know, at a different address. This is quite a concern in itself, and also suggests an oversight by the sender which might explain why I never received an original notice.

 

In summary, I would like to be given the original notice for the original fine (as I have never received it), and also be given an explanation as to why I have received someone else's notice. The later C.C should be cancelled and my fine reverted to the original, in light of what I have explained.

 

Here are the relevant numbers, as can be seen in the attachment: Yours Faithfully,

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

There is something else however. The driver who strayed into the lane is a Chinese friend of mine (I'm typing this on his behalf for language reasons). He is a researcher here but will return to China in May. If he does come back to the UK it will be after a couple of years and to a different address.

 

Does this affect how we should treat this complaints process, in your eyes?

 

Many thanks for taking the time to read all that!

[citizenB]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?310558-Penalty-Charge-notice-not-received-in-post-from-council.

 

^^^^ link to thread you mention ^^^

[citizenB]

It does make you wonder if the Notice they claimed was sent to you.. was in fact sent to the other person.

[BingLi]

Thanks for linking it : )

 

Yeh I know right... what a screw up. Do you have any advice about how to handle this if it goes to county court? I've never dealt with such matters. I'd accompany my friend (the driver) there as his English is not perfect. I certainly know we have good evidence here that the council in question send the wrong things to the wrong people...

[armadillo71]

This is the wrong forum. You need to repost here;

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?363-Local-Authority-Parking-and-Traffic-Offences

 

or ask the site team to move this thread.

[Queens_king]

Hi, I am an ex Swindon Ianand have previously had problems with the council which Iis CAPITA infested.

 

The Swindon Borough Council are a nightmare to deal with at the front desk and the admin back office. If you get nowhere Iit may pay to swerve the back office

[honeybee13]

Thread moved to the local authority forum.

 

HB

[Jamberson]

They will probably just tell you the standard process - wait for an Order for Recovery to be issued and then you can file a witness statement to get the charge reverted back to where it was at the start.

 

As regards the other letter, it doesn't imply an oversight by the sender - it implies two pages got caught together when they went into envelopes. It happens - it might have happened to your original undelivered notice too, which is what the witness statement process is there for.

 

See what they say in reply to your email.

[BingLi]

Thanks for that. Also considering getting the ICO involved for data protection breaches (where have they sent my personal info if I didn't get it?)

[Jamberson]

Thanks for that. Also considering getting the ICO involved for data protection breaches (where have they sent my personal info if I didn't get it?)

 

You don't have much of a case - you can't prove it was sent to the wrong address. Could have been mis-delivered by the post, or dumped by a disgruntled postie, or stolen or anything. Also, I don't see what could be gained even if you did.

[BingLi]

They put the other guy's penalty in the same envelope. It definitely happened their end

[ericsbrother]

it will be down to a balance of probabilities and having the wrong letter will help your claim enormously but is not a killer argument as it relies on the council making the same sort of error twice and some judges beleive that councils and bodies corporate never make mistakes. Is the other person local to you? he could do a swear if he did indeed receive the original letter.