'Penalty exceeded .....circumstances of the case'
The circumstances being that a PCN was issued to VWFS on 26 June and subsequently a new PCN to me on 8 August. VWFS made representations to the effect that:
d)..the recipient [VWFS]is a vehicle-hire firm and—
(i)the vehicle in question was at the material time hired from that firm under a vehicle hiring agreement
VWFS is not a vehicle-hire firm, instead it leases vehicles and on the date of the contravention the vehicle was not hired to me under a vehicle hiring agreement (or subject to a mysterious 1-day lease as claimed in their letter to you dated 7 July), but on the contrary I was the owner of the vehicle having acquired it from VWFS on ***.
I cannot explain, neither is it my burden to do so, why DVLA had not processed the change of registered keeper documentation but instead still showed VWFS as the registered keeper, but in law this is not germane. The authority issued a PCN to VWFS who for some unknown reason invented a '1-day lease' scenario when in fact, as the enclosed documents show, they were not acting as a 'vehicle-hire' firm and therefore could not make representations under these grounds neither could the authority accept such representations. VWFS were not a 'vehicle-hire firm' but in fact had ceased to be the owner prior to the date of the contravention and were obliged to make representations as such.
Unless the authority can establish that representations were made under these grounds and can evidence acceptance by producing a Notice of Acceptance the PCN must be cancelled.
Enclosed: documents proving my ownership, namely ***********
My thoughts.