On 11 March I, as keeper, received a PCN for a parking offence dated 15 February (attached above).
On 14 March The driver drove the 50 mile round trip to Costa Coffee and spoke with the manager who kindly offered to cancel the PCN via the parking company though warned there might be a £20 “admin charge”.
Whilst there the driver saw the on-counter tablet device and remembered that during his original visit his registration number had been entered into this as required to extend his stay by 90 minutes, and therefore that his stay was within the allowed time (90 mins +90 mins for entering the registration number). The driver informed this to the manager and asked that she noted this to the parking company.
On 16 March I received a parking charge reminder dated 28 February. I ignored this because the Manager had informed the driver that the PCN would be cancelled.
On 2nd April I received a letter from the parking company dated 25 March stating that Schedule 4 of PFA has been satisfied and as 29 days have passed from the date the PCN was given parkingeye has the right to recover the parking charge from me.
On 3 April the driver again visited Costa Coffee but a different manager was on duty and wasn’t able to help. The driver entered registration details on the terminal and noted that on their first attempt the recorded details were wrong but accepted by the machine.
According to parking eye I am now liable for the PCN charge.
My defence appears to be that the driver entered their registration details in the tablet but that this hasn’t been considered by parking eye: perhaps the driver entered incorrect details, or perhaps the tablet screen was out of calibration and recorded the wrong details. Unfortunately a receipt is not provided by the tablet so it is difficult to verify who or what is at fault. On the original visit the driver was accompanied by two friends who acknowledge that the registration details were input into the tablet.
The PCN reminder and Schedule 4 letter are included below. I have the number of the Costa area manager and Will phone her tomorrow and ask that this be cancelled, however as this was promised but didn’t happen previously I’d be grateful for suggestions as to my next steps.
