Free Traffic Legal Advice

On 23/12/24 I received a PCN that seemed wildly unfair and I am even wondering if I have grounds to put in a complaint, never-mind just appeal. It sounds ridiculous, but this really is an honest description of what happened:

I pulled up in a street parking bay, and walked away from the car to find the nearest machine so I could see the number in which to pay on my app. As I walked over to do this, a mother struggling with shopping bags and her children stopped me to ask for help in ordering a taxi. The mum didn't speak English and her child had to translate between us. Of course I tried to help them, which perhaps took about 5 minutes. As I was coming to the end of this I noticed a traffic warden with his machine out by my car so I literally ran over and said to him "I'm just about to get a ticket, which is the nearest machine?" (so he knew my intent) He pointed to the opposite direction I came from and then started talking to another man whose car was there. I stood beside him & waited for about 1 minute until he was done with his conversation so I could ask if I could use the code on the closer machine, but before I even had chance to do that he slapped a PCN on my car.

I said "why did you do that? I literally told you I'm about to buy a ticket."
Warden: "I didn't know that was your car."
Me: "How could you not know, I ran over the road to tell you I was just about to buy a ticket?"
Warden: "I didn't know."
Me: "I was on my way to buy a ticket and I just stopped briefly to help a family who couldn't speak English."
Warden: "Okay well sorry, maybe you can appeal it. I was observing your car for about 10 minutes."
Me: "That doesn't sound right."
Warden: "There's nothing I can do, you can try and appeal it. You should've told me that was your car."

Then he walked off. I checked the ticket and the observation time was only for 4 minutes.

Do I have grounds to appeal this? It feels very unfair.


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