Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi everyone

 One day in June this year,at Iceland car park in Kettering town centre where i normally park every week when i go in town,i inserted 1 pound coin( for an hour stay ) at the machine and inserted the correct reg plate number but on the printed ticket only the last three digits of my car reg were showing. Didn't think of it ,not much i could have done about it anyway as my 1 pound coin was already in the machine. Displayed the ticket correctly, shopped and returned to the car and gone after 20 minutes. Some days later i received a PCN of 100 pounds from Excel Parking as i parked without a valid ticket(ticked invalid as not showing my car full reg ). I appealed on the basis that looking at the entry and exit times from the car park and the last 3 digits of my car reg showing on the ticket ,on a balance of probabilities ,i paid to park my car there as there was not any other car with the reg last 3 digits the same as my car parked there on that short period of time.Also i believe the machine had a printing issue as on a ticked i paid on a previous week had  my full car reg but also Iceland Kettering printed which is missing from the ticket with only the 3 digits reg .Excel Parking rejected the appeal, after i appealed to IAS which also rejected my appeal.
I still got the ticket with the issue, also the other ticket with full reg but also with the Iceland Kettering printed on it.
Last week i parked again there and the machine printed a twin ticket,as the first was missing again the Iceland Kettering but corrected on the double one(but both showing car full reg).
Do i have any chance to defend this in court ? I'm really reluctant to give this people 100 pound .
If anyone can advise please ?
I have attached the ticket with the issue, also the comparison one.
Many thanks !
 

Thank you !
Pcn attached

No Iceland food customer .There is corporate locker at the back of their store where i go pretty much every week to pick up deliveries for my work. The locker is attached to the Iceland building at the back by their main deliveries entrance.
I have also attached their machine payment records ,it shows the last 3 digits of my car reg only.
Their terms are indeed that the full reg needs to be on the ticket. Maybe was an issue with the machine  or maybe i only typed the last 3 digits of my car reg that day.
I wonder how a judge would see this as for me is obvious that payment was made for my car ?

If the machine log shows:


then you can argue beyond doubt that payment was made for the vehicle.

In court, Excel would need to persuade a judge that despite you paying, displaying the ticket, and leaving within the paid time, you should still owe them £100 simply because their system didn’t record the full VRM. That is very weak.

Judges tend to apply common sense. If the log and ticket line up, then on the balance of probabilities it was your vehicle, and the landowner suffered no loss. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 helps you too: Excel relying on a minor “technicality” (machine error or truncation) to impose a £100 penalty is arguably an unfair contract term.

If you get a court claim, your defence should hammer these points:


That combination is strong enough that Excel’s claim would be very shaky.

The odds of this actually reaching the inside of a courtroom are minuscule. The most likely outcome is that any claim will be either struck out or discontinued before they have to pay the £27 trial fee.

DO not try to accelerate the process. It will grind on at the usual snails pace. You will have to go through the bother of receiving useless debt recovery letters. You can safely ignore all debt collectors. They are powerless to actually do anything except to try and persuade the low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up out of ignorance and fear.

In the extremely unlikely event that this actually went as far as a hearing and you were unsuccessful, the fake £70 added costs would not be allowed and as it would be in the small claims track, costs would be fixed at £35 claim fee and £50 solicitor costs. However, I will eat my hat if that happened.

Eventually, you will receive a Letter of Claim. Come back when you do and we will provide the necessary response and how to eventually defend the claim when it arrives.