Everything in that letter is a lie. Their "Penalty Notice" is not real. You don't seem to understand that it is simply an "offered contract" which is not enforceable under any circumstance.
It was not a Penalty Notice. It is simply an unlawful attempt to extort money from you. You were never under any legal obligation to pay APCOA what is in effect, a bribe for them not to take out a private criminal prosecution in the magistrates court. Because the "offered contract" has nothing to so with statutory law, they are not allowed to use the terminology with wording that includes "criminal", "penalty" and "fine".
If you really want to do anything about this, you should report APCOA to Action Fraud. This scam has been going on for many years and, unfortunately, many tens of thousands of Sheeple simply pay the scammers out of gullibility, ignorance and fear... hence the "extortion".
APCOA have NEVER, ever prosecuted any one in a private criminal prosecution in the magistrates court. Why not? Because a) they can't because they have not issued a real Penalty Notice and b) even if it were a real Penalty Notice and they were successful, they would not receive a penny as any payment goes to the public purse.
So, believe all you want that you deflected them because of their ANPR or whatever, you have simply been suckered into wasting your time by responding to them. Try and get them to provide a copy of their contract with the Train Operating Company for that station and I will bet £100 that they have no authority to issue Penalty Notices at all.
