Free Traffic Legal Advice

i know that letter is a shambles, but to be honest, I'm not totally confident that they wouldn't be able to successfully sue me in court for the "penalty" charge.  i can't afford representation, and i don't know where to look for the legislation that relates to this, and if i did, I'm not confident I'd understand it well enough to defend myself.

my wife called to see the manager for me today because i was working all day.  he wouldn't give her a crime number, and talked all sorts of bs (my favourite was when he told her that against company policy, i drew fuel and drove off with my driver door open!  you can see from the cctv still they provided that it's obviously closed!).  he definitely sounded like he was just getting to bully us into paying, and that I'd have to pay PMF, not the fuel station.

i called MFG, and the guy i spoke to said that he'd open an investigation, but they couldn't guarantee that PMF wouldn't chase me for the "fine".

is it worth me filing a police report?

and, with all the other stresses I'm under at the present moment, with only until Friday before 14 days from the issue of the letter, I'm thinking i might just begrudgingly, and under protest, pay the extortion.    it goes against every fibre of my being, but i can't really afford things going wrong, escalating, and i end up losing anyway =$

but whatever i do, i want to thank every one of you wholeheartedly for your replies and contributions

well i have already stated to morrisons store and the fuel station that I'm happy to pay the debt, but not very happy to pay the extortionate penalty.

but i also don't want the hassle of it going to court, especially if I'm not certain that i wouldn't be made to pay the penalty (especially if it goes up to £150 for not paying promptly), and any other court costs

well morrisons' main store were very sympathetic and as helpful as they could be, but because they are separate from the fuel stations, i had to go speak to them.  there, the lone attendant let me use his phone to speak to the manager, who was not very helpful at all.  he first told me I'd have to pay the fine.  he also told me the police were involved (i doubted this, as i have not been contacted by the police, and the letter from Pay My Fuel was issued the day after the offence).  so i asked him for a crime number, to which he replied that i would have to see him in work tomorrow and he would give me the details.  (I'm unable to meet him due to work but he said my wife could call on my behalf), which she is going to do).

morrisons' main store customer services also gave me the main customer services phone number, and also the head office phone number, and from the fuel station i got a business card for MFG, who run the stations apparently, so I'll be calling some of those tomorrow too.

in the meantime, if anyone has any advice, what info should i be trying to obtain from any of these people, I'd be most grateful.

yes i thought it looked a bit umm, less professional / legal than other letters I've seen.   it reminded me of the awful tv licencing "enforcement" letters..

anyway, what do you think i should do for the best please?

in the letter they do use the word "penalty".  and it also says in big red print at the top "notice of intended enforcement/prosecution".

I am currently having trouble uploading a photo of the letter  (When i click on the "attachments and other options" i don't seem to have an option for adding an attachment) but I'm still trying.   can anyone advise on this too please?

if i returned to Morrison's and payed for the fuel in person, would i be able to get the penalty charge cancelled?

I'm asking because in the past, unknowingly to me, a debt (gas bill i think) got passed to a debt collector, but i immediately settled the debt with the gas company, which terminated the account with the debt collector

Hello all,  I wonder if someone could please help.  (And I hope I posted to the correct forum, many apologies if I didn't)

On Friday 9th I received a letter from Pay My Fuel informing me that I did not pay for my fuel at my local Morrison's service station.
Although I don't clearly remember doing this (I use that station as well as another local one very regularly, for fuelling my wife's car as well as mine), and I have heard of such scams, I think it's genuine, as there are photos of my car and myself in my work uniform (I was in work that day), and the time and date is consistent with me fuelling up after work.   The amount of fuel they claim matches with the sort of amount I would usually put in (I'm a bit odd in that I always match the amount of pounds and pence, eg £27.27 or £42.42, etc), and there are also no records of any bank transactions (and I don't usually use cash to pay for fuel.   I normally use pay-at-pump so I am not usually even entering the kiosk).
Like I said, I have no clear recollection of doing this, but due to stresses and tiredness, I am probably guilty of the offence and feel pretty embarrassed to say the least, as this is something I would never do intentionally.

Anyway, I'm now being charged for the fuel I took, plus an extra penalty charge of £50.

I'm obviously more than happy to pay for the fuel I took, but money's not something I have loads of, and I can really do without wasting another £50 on a penalty charge.


Can anyone advise me please?