Free Traffic Legal Advice

I have received a PCN of £100 from "Smart Parking Ltd" addressed to me and sent to my address for overstaying at a car park in Hereford on 19/08/2024. The written reg on the paper is mine, but the images they've taken shows a reg that is not mine (but is somewhat close) and has a picture of what seems to be a Ford SUV which I do not own, mine is an Audi hatchback.

To be clear, I have never been to the car park in question, they seem to have misread the registration (mine is XK69 XXX and the reg of the image they've taken is XC59 XXX), so I thought it would be as easy as calling them and telling them they have the wrong person/car and to please stop contacting me and delete my personal details from their system, but the person on the line told me I would need to fill out their appeals form online to get them to "consider my appeal". The person on the line was extremely rude and unhelpful and tried to prod me into just paying the fine as the "easiest option for me and would be the cheaper £60 option right now" but I refused, is it best to fill out all my personal details on their online appeals form or should I send them a letter? I could use some advice, thank you in advance.

You can also threaten them with a lawsuit for damages as they have illegally obtained your personal data in breach of the KADOE contract. By failing to perform a manual quality control check on the ANPR photographic evidence, they are in breach of their AOS Code of Practice which nullifies their KADOE contract.

Threaten to sue them for £250 for breaching your GDPR and tell them you’ll accept £100 if they are prepared to settle within 14 days of receipt of the letter.

Article 12 of the UK GDPR legally requires data controllers to store and process personal data accurately: clearly, any data controller issuing an invoice to you because it has wrongly recorded that you parked in breach of the alleged contract between you and the landowner (or, as in this case, an agent of the landowner) is processing your personal data unlawfully.

The precedents for claiming damages and compensation for such unlawful processing are the decisions of the Court of Appeal in Zeta Jones & Douglas v Hello! Magazine [2003] EWHC 786 and Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd (CCF) [2013] EWCA Civ 333, both being binding on all County Courts in England and Wales.  In the latter claim, Mr Halliday was awarded compensation of £750 at what the Court regarded was the lowest level of award, and although this was a claim under Section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998, similar provisions - amended to take account of a decision by the EU Grand Chamber that the 1998 Act did not properly implement EU law into UK domestic legislation - replaced the old Section 13 provisions with Article 12 of the UK GDPR and Section 168 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In short, you ought to give 21 days notice (the pre-action protocol only really requires 14 days but hey, you can be charitable!) to the data controller of your intention to seek (say) £100 nominal damages and compensation under Article 12 of the UK GDPR and Section 168 of the Data Protection Act 2018 for their unlawful processing of your personal data: you could say that you will not file your claim with the County Court if they confirm in writing that all references to this alleged debt have been deleted within (say) 14 days. Clearly mark your letter as a "Letter before County Court proceedings".

Anyone who is fairly confident can claim as a litigant-in-person in Part 27 proceedings in the County Court (commonly but wrongly described as "the Small Claims Court").  Each party is responsible for their own legal costs whether they win or lose and the claim for £100 can be issued online for a fee of £35 at moneyclaimonline.gov.uk which also gives useful advice if you want to have a look at what is involved.  Your claim will automatically be listed as being for a total of £135, i.e. the successful party gets their Court fees back.

You can also threaten them with a lawsuit for damages as they have illegally obtained your personal data in breach of the KADOE contract. By failing to perform a manual quality control check on the ANPR photographic evidence, they are in breach of their AOS Code of Practice which nullifies their KADOE contract.

Threaten to sue them for £250 for breaching your GDPR and tell them you’ll accept £100 if they are prepared to settle within 14 days of receipt of the letter.

Quote

Article 12 of the UK GDPR legally requires data controllers to store and process personal data accurately: clearly, any data controller issuing an invoice to you because it has wrongly recorded that you parked in breach of the alleged contract between you and the landowner (or, as in this case, an agent of the landowner) is processing your personal data unlawfully.

The precedents for claiming damages and compensation for such unlawful processing are the decisions of the Court of Appeal in Zeta Jones & Douglas v Hello! Magazine [2003] EWHC 786 and Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd (CCF) [2013] EWCA Civ 333, both being binding on all County Courts in England and Wales.  In the latter claim, Mr Halliday was awarded compensation of £750 at what the Court regarded was the lowest level of award, and although this was a claim under Section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998, similar provisions - amended to take account of a decision by the EU Grand Chamber that the 1998 Act did not properly implement EU law into UK domestic legislation - replaced the old Section 13 provisions with Article 12 of the UK GDPR and Section 168 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In short, you ought to give 21 days notice (the pre-action protocol only really requires 14 days but hey, you can be charitable!) to the data controller of your intention to seek (say) £100 nominal damages and compensation under Article 12 of the UK GDPR and Section 168 of the Data Protection Act 2018 for their unlawful processing of your personal data: you could say that you will not file your claim with the County Court if they confirm in writing that all references to this alleged debt have been deleted within (say) 14 days. Clearly mark your letter as a "Letter before County Court proceedings".

Anyone who is fairly confident can claim as a litigant-in-person in Part 27 proceedings in the County Court (commonly but wrongly described as "the Small Claims Court").  Each party is responsible for their own legal costs whether they win or lose and the claim for £100 can be issued online for a fee of £35 at moneyclaimonline.gov.uk which also gives useful advice if you want to have a look at what is involved.  Your claim will automatically be listed as being for a total of £135, i.e. the successful party gets their Court fees back.

Thank you also! Would adding this create any more of an issue? It would be nice to be compensated for the stress they've caused, but I don't want prolong the issue further and just be done with it.
I appreciate your message very much.

Notice looks as expected.

Whether you decide to sue them or not is your call, it's your personal data and your time.

Out of interest, how clear are the images of the plate on the notice? I'm asking to rule out the possibility that your plates have been cloned, which is rare but does happen.

Thank you.

The plate is quite clear, I also thought my plates may have been cloned when I first saw the letter but it is not mine, it does seem to just have been read incorrectly. The "5" is especially very clear on their photo, where as on my plate it is a "6".

Any appeal that makes mention of the fact they don't bother with PoFA will see them cancel.

You might want to write to them with your proposed resolution before leaping straight in to a Letter before County Court proceedings. The courts expect you to treat court as a last resort, not the first thing you do when you have a dispute.

You write to them separately with a complaint about yourGDPR data breach. If they don’t respond, you can send them a Letter or Claim. Give them a tease of their own medicine.

In Writing post send  1st class with free certificate of posting at a Post Office.