Free Traffic Legal Advice

Further to your email of and our subsequent communication, I have now completed my investigations into your complaint. Thank you for your patience whilst your complaint was investigated.

Your complaint

I understand you are dissatisfied as [Leasing Company] have made payment on and then invoiced you for a PCN (penalty charge notice) issued for contravention of the Railway Byelaw. You believe the PCN has not been issued by a legal authority and is an unlawful demand misrepresenting a legal authority. You have requested [Leasing Company] investigate the payment of this PCN and report the issuer for fraudulent representation.

Investigation

Thank you for taking the time to contact [Leasing Company] and make us aware of your concerns.

I have been in contact with the Vehicle Administration Team at [Leasing Company] who have confirmed with fines relating to the Railway Byelaws, these fines are prohibited from liability transfers. As the owners of the vehicle, [Leasing Company] are therefore liable for any penalty charge notices incurred against the vehicle. It is therefore in our interest to pay these fines with immediate effect to ensure they do not escalate.

Further to the information provided by the Vehicle Admin Team, I have also taken the liberty of reviewing the Railway Byelaws on the government website. Section 14 of the Byelaws details the parking restrictions. These can be viewed for yourself here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railway-byelaws/railway-byelaws

The byelaws state in section 14. (3):

"no person in charge of any motor vehicle, bicycle or other conveyance shall park it on any part of the railway where charges are made for parking by an operator or an authorised person without paying the appropriate charge at the appropriate time in accordance with instructions given by an operator or an authorised person at that place"

In this circumstance, the operator and authorised person for the car park in question is APCOA. The PCN has therefore been issued under the Railway Byelaws correctly and is not fraudulent or a misrepresentation.

[Leasing Company] have therefore paid this fine, to avoid further escalation correctly. The recharge of this fine has then been invoiced to yourself correctly and in line with the terms and conditions of the agreement entered into by yourself.

In light of this information, the invoice relating to the PCN remains payable in full by yourselves.

I understand this is not the outcome you had hoped for and for this, I would like to offer my sincere apologies. I have now closed the case, if there are any further queries I can assist with, please do not hesitate to contact me on the details listed below.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may contact the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) who operate a free-of-charge Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service which is approved by the government.  Complaints must be referred within 12 months of the date of this letter.  For more information and to contact the BVRLA, please click here.

If the total amount payable under your agreement is less than £100,000 and if you are not satisfied with our response, you may also, as an alternative, refer your complaint to the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) for consideration.  The FLA operate a code of conduct (the Business Finance Code) to which we adhere.  If you believe our conduct has not met the standards of this Code please contact: business.finance@fla.org.uk. Further information about the FLA’s Business Finance Code can be found here.  In exceptional circumstances, the FLA may also be able to offer access to a conciliation service.

Thank you for getting in touch and allowing me to review your concerns.

Subject: Rejection of Invoice – Unauthorised Payment of Fraudulent APCOA “Penalty Notice” (Ref: GT02434155)

Dear [Name],

Your latest response is deeply flawed and continues to demonstrate a worrying lack of legal understanding regarding the nature of the so-called Penalty Notice issued by APCOA. Let me make it absolutely clear:

• You paid an unlawful demand from a private company pretending to issue criminal penalties.
• You have no right to recover that money from me.
• You have been scammed.

1. This Was Not a Fine or Penalty – It Was a Private Contractual Offer Masquerading as a Statutory Penalty

The notice issued by APCOA was not a lawful Penalty Notice under the Railway Byelaws. APCOA is an unregulated private parking contractor, not a prosecuting authority, and has no power to issue criminal penalties. What you paid was not a fine. It was a speculative civil demand (invoice), no different from a regular Parking Charge Notice (PCN), misrepresented as a statutory penalty in order to create the illusion of criminal enforcement.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has made it clear—most notably in its 2018 response to POPLA—that minor parking contraventions under the Railway Byelaws are not to be prosecuted under Byelaw 24(1). That route is reserved for serious offences. Following the introduction of the Road Traffic Act 1991, most parking violations in the UK were decriminalised, and the DfT has confirmed that enforcement for such matters is to proceed via civil, contractual charges (PCNs), not through the criminal courts.

To that end, the DfT accepts that operators may issue PCNs for contractual breaches under Byelaw 14(4)(i), but these are civil in nature, based on implied contractual terms. Nowhere has the DfT ever said that private companies like APCOA are authorised to prosecute or to issue genuine criminal Penalty Notices. In fact, the DfT has been careful to distinguish these civil charges from statutory penalties under Byelaw 24(1), which must be pursued by a Train Operating Company (TOC), Network Rail, or a delegated public authority, via the magistrates’ court.

If APCOA truly had the power to issue enforceable statutory Penalty Notices, the following would be true:

• The notice would clearly identify the prosecuting authority and cite the specific byelaw breached;
• It would advise that failure to pay may result in a summons to court, not simply “further action”;
• Payment would be made to the public purse, not into APCOA’s own account;
• And most importantly, APCOA would be able to produce a contract showing explicit statutory delegation, which it cannot.

If you are in any doubt, I invite you to request a copy of APCOA’s contract with the landowner or TOC. You will find that it grants APCOA the limited right to manage parking and issue Parking Charge Notices for breach of contract, but it does not confer any statutory authority to issue or enforce Penalty Notices under the Railway Byelaws. There is no lawful basis for them to suggest they have the power to prosecute or issue criminal penalties. They are relying entirely on your ignorance of the law.

Let me also be clear:

• APCOA has never prosecuted a single notice under the Railway Byelaws in the magistrates’ court—they cannot, because they lack authority.
• They will not sue in the county court, either—because if they did, their fraudulent misrepresentation of legal power would be exposed under cross-examination. A statutory penalty cannot be heard in the county court.

Instead, they rely on threatening letters, official-sounding language, and recipients who can be relied on to pay out of ignorance and fear. That is the entire model.

Had you conducted the most basic legal due diligence—or simply read the notice with a critical eye—you would have recognised that this was a civil contractual offer, masquerading as a criminal penalty, and designed to mislead. There was no statutory instrument, no summons, and no compulsion to pay. What you paid was a fraudulent demand, and your error has directly funded a scheme that depends on fear, misrepresentation, and legal ignorance to extract money from innocent parties.

2. You Denied Me My Right to Appeal and Acted Without Authority

The back of the notice clearly states that recipients have 28 days to appeal. You could very easily have issued a simple cover letter authorising me, as the Hirer, to deal with the matter directly—something that is both standard practice and explicitly anticipated under the lease. Only after an appeal had been submitted and rejected, would you even begin to consider whether payment was appropriate.

Instead, you acted with no due diligence, made no effort to transfer liability, and unilaterally extinguished my right to challenge a plainly unlawful and misrepresented demand.

As already pointed out multiple times, you have been suckered—just like all the other low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree—into funding a scam by blindly paying a fraudulent notice without question. That is your error, and you alone must bear the consequences.

3. This Was a Criminal Offence – APCOA Should Be Reported for Fraud

What APCOA is doing amounts to a criminal offence under the Fraud Act 2006, specifically:

Section 2 – Fraud by false representation: where a person dishonestly makes a false representation intending to make a gain or cause a loss.

• APCOA falsely claims to have legal authority to issue enforceable penalties under the Railway Byelaws.
• They threaten criminal prosecution while never intending or being able to follow through.
• They demand payment into a private account under the false pretence that a criminal offence has occurred.

That is fraud, plain and simple, and the fact that your company paid them without question shows you were deceived—which is the very definition of being defrauded.

4. This Is Your Error – You Must Pursue APCOA/b]

You cannot pass this invoice to me. You are not entitled to recover the cost of your own misinformed and unauthorised payment of a fake penalty. If you wish to recover your money, the correct course of action is:

• Report APCOA to the police for fraud by false representation, and
• Initiate legal proceedings against APCOA to recover the payment, plus your costs.

What you must not do is attempt to offload your mistake onto me.

5. Next Steps

I require your written confirmation within 14 days that:

1. The invoice has been cancelled in full;
2. The admin fee has been removed;
3. No recovery or collection action will be taken; and
4. You accept that the payment was made in error and without my consent.

If you refuse, I will escalate this complaint to the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) and, if applicable, the Financial Ombudsman Service, on the grounds of breach of contract, unauthorised action, and denial of my legal rights.

I also reserve the right to initiate legal action against you for recovery of any losses or costs I incur in defending against your improper demand.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Lease Agreement Reference / Vehicle Registration]