Some clarification needed first. You say you received a PCN. You say the car you were driving is a company car that is on lease. Was the PCN you received in your name? If so, was it a Notice to Keeper (NtK), Notice to Hirer (NtH) or a Notice to Driver (NtD)?
Any alleged breach of contract with an unregulated private parking company (PPC) is always between the driver and the operator. When a PPC decides that there has been a breach of contract, they have no idea who the driver is. They use probable cause to get the keepers details from the DVLA.
Once the have the keepers data, the keeper is known and the driver is still unknown. Provided they issue an NtK that fully complies with the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PoFA), if they don't know the drivers details, they can transfer the liability for the charge from the unknown driver to the known keeper.
However, as the vehicle is leased/hired to a third party, the keeper (the lease company) can transfer their liability to the Hirer/lessee. So, now the PPC has the details of the known hirer/lessee. As long as they still follow the requirements of PoFA, they can still hold the known hirer/lessee liable for the charge if they don't know the unknown drivers detail. They then issue an NtH to the hirer/lessee, your employer in this case.
It is at this stage the 99.99% of PPCs screw up the PoFA requirements because they fail to provide copies of certain documents with the NtH. So, now your employer has received an NtH and decide to pass it on to you. Unfortunately, your employer, more likely than not, has no idea that they can tell the operator to go swivel on a sharp stick and nothing will come of it.
This is where it gets confusing and messy. I'm assuming that your employer gave you a copy of the NtH and then you got in touch with the PPC and gave them your details making the unknown driver the known driver. As I mentioned at the beginning of this, the driver is always liable for any alleged breach of contract. Until you told the PPC that you were the driver, they had no idea who it was.
It was a "golden ticket" because as long as the drivers identity is not revealed, a hired/leased vehicle will cause a PPC to screw up the requirements of PoFA 99.99% of the time when they issue the NtH. All you had to do was not reveal the identity of the driver and get your employer to understand that they were not liable either. The only problem you would have had, is getting them to do a POPLA appeal (if it was a BPA member PPC) or ignoring all the useless debt collector letters that they would receive if it was an IPC member.
So, please correct me if I'm wrong in my assumption that you eventually receive an NtD in your name after you told the PPC or did you simply appeal as the driver to an NtH addressed to your employer?
