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Hi guys

Today, with the assistance of Mr Mustard, I have won the case! The adjudicator ordered the council to refund £265 (£200 for the towing and £65 for the PCN, which they took on the day they removed the car).

As I was curious, I attended the hearing today and watched the responses of the adjudicator to the presented evidence. The adjudicator's first response was: "not an obvious dropped kerb, is it?"

Mr Mustard then presented my first appeal ground: the PCN was not served. Mr Mustard showed the council's photo with my car and the empty plastic wallet on it. The plastic wallet looked as flat as a 'pancake' as Mr Mustard described it.

Mr Mustard then showed him the PCN that I was handed at the car pound, which did not have any crease at all, indicating that it was not placed in the plastic wallet before they removed my car. The adjudicator asked whether I was served the PCN and I said no as the car was not there when I came back. I didn't know why they had towed away my car until I collected the PCN by hand at the car pound.

They had basically put the empty plastic wallet on the car just for the 'photo' effect without putting the PCN in it at all. This itsef was sufficient for the adjudicator to conclude that the PCN was not served. Within seconds the adjudicator noticed this, he said: "Procedural impropriety. Appeal allowed. The council should refund £265".

After Mr Mustard instructed him, the adjudicator also compared 'the PCN which the tribunal received from the council' and 'the one that I was given by hand at the car pound', which were not same. Mr Mustard helped the adjudicator notice this by comparing the two of them. The adjudicator looked surprised when he noticed this and asked us to give him a copy of my PCN for their own records. The tribunal staff took a copy of it and stamped it to say that they received it.

Within 10 minutes after I attended the hearing, the adjudicator made his decision and allowed the appeal. He did not even think that it was necessary for us to present the other evidence about the council's other wrongdoings, which included:

1) serving an out-of-date notice regarding appeal rights;
2) road conditions (i.e. the dropped kerb was hidden under water in a flooded section of the road);
3) no signs/lines put by the council to alert motorists that there is a hidden dropped kerb there
4) disproportionate action of towing the car rather than only issuing a PCN on a quiet residential road (they towed away my car because it was parked next to a hidden dropped kerb under water)

All in all, it was quite fun to watch the responses of the adjudicator to the evidence presented by Mr Mustard. Many thanks to Mr Mustard for his efforts to prove our points about the council's wrongdoings.

I hope others will do the same and present councils' wrong practices to adjudicators to stop councils abusing their position on motorists.

Good luck to others...

Thanks guys for your responses. I have put in the attached document all the photos shown on the council's appeal website in a chronological order. There are only 6 photos on their website and no other evidence or any other explanation had been provided about the PCN.

I have also copied the documents given at the car pound, which are: a PCN (both sides of it have been copied as you requested), a payment receipt form filled in by the car pound staff, and the appeal form given by them.

I have put my own photo showing the kerb under water where I parked and the uneven surface of the kerb behind my parked car, which had a lowered end too, bringing more confusion about where the actual dropped kerb started and finished.

I looked for the council's rule book about their car towing rules, but could not find it.

I hope these details in the attached document will be sufficient for you. These are the only photos and documents that I have been provided by the council.

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Yesterday morning at about 8.00am, I had parked my car next to a kerb on a residential road in Edmonton (N9), Enfield, without any parking restrictions. There were no houses around the section of the road where I parked. The road  was dark without any lights. The section where I parked was also partly flooded.

When I came back about two hours later, I could not believe that my car was no longer there. I didn't know what to do as this was not what I expected. Thinking that it might have been stolen, I even called the police. In the end, it turned out that the council had removed it by claiming that I had parked next to a dropped kerb. They demanded £65 for the PCN and £200 for the removal before giving the car back. I collected it straight away within 2 hours after parking there and had to pay £265 to get my car back.

In the photo attached, you can see that the section of the kerb where I parked was flooded and it was not obvious from any other signs around there that there was a dropped kerb there. The car pound staff claimed that there was a dropped kerb there in the flooded section of the kerb and that they had removed my car for that reason. How would I see it when the dropped kerb was covered with water?

I believe that this was a disproportionate action by the council and I am worried that this will be the norm from now on as those councils are very desperate for money and they are trying to find all sorts of ways to exploit motorists. In the past, they would put a PCN notice first and let us know if any contravention occurred, show proof etc and give us a chance to appeal. This time, within less than 2 hours after I parked the car, they removed it and I did not get any of the PCN details until I collected the car from the car pound.

I showed the attached photo with the flooded kerb to the car pound staff when I collected the car, but they said I needed to make the full payment of £265 first and then appeal within 28 days to claim my money back.

I would appreciate if you give me some advice before I submit my appeal.

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