Free Traffic Legal Advice

Car Park operated by Smart Parking using ANPR and ‘Pay & Walk’ machines installed onsite for payment.


The driver (not me) paid on arrival (via the onsite ‘Pay & Walk’ machine) for 2 hours parking (this is the minimum allowed payment) and stayed less than 30 minutes. The driver said that when they entered the number plate, via the touchscreen, it was correctly showing on screen as they keyed it in, but the ticket (that the machine printed out) shows a slightly different number plate, so it’s incorrect. The driver is familiar with how to use the payment machine at this car park as they have parked there and used it many times before without any problems. However, out of the 7 character number plate, the 2nd character (a letter) is missing completely and the 3rd character (a number) is showing as a letter instead.

[I’ve noticed that this is the corresponding letter to the same place (or next to, depending on the format) as the number commonly found on touchscreen keypads (meaning where ‘QWERTY’ etc. either directly corresponds to ‘123456’ etc. when switching between 123/ABC or where the numbers are directly above the letters, they are next to each other) so the letter E is printed on the ticket whereas it should be the number 3.]

The rest of the number plate is printed correctly on the ticket and the amount paid and the times are all correct. Will a PCN likely be issued? And if so, can it be successfully (quickly/easily) appealed?

Thank you

I am neither the registered keeper nor the driver - I’m just trying to help someone who will not be able to cope with a protracted process (court claim, debt letters etc.), but I have helped them twice before with PCNs (both with different circumstances) by following the excellent advice of helpful people online, which led to both PCNs being completely cancelled after just sending a ‘quick/easy’ appeal to each of the two parking companies (took a couple of hours, followed by a letter confirming cancellation received a few days later in the post) - hence my hopeful optimism that there may have been a chance for this to be ‘quick/easy’ again this time!

Also, I’m sorry my explanation wasn’t very clear - I have a brain tumour, which causes my thoughts to become muddled, so I struggle with clear explanations. I appreciate that this means I’m really not the best person to be helping someone else with this, but I’m their only option, so if I don’t at least try then they will just pay.

"Dealing with multiple appeals and a court claim" are not arduous when following the advice given here. At most they involve posting a question about the process and next steps and receiving the necessary advice on how to proceed, which invariably, involves a few minutes work, copying and pasting the recommended text into an email and send it.

Dealing with the letters that arrive, again, are not difficult to deal with. Any useless debt recovery letters can be safely ignored, shredded and used as hamster bedding for anyone cares. The only letters that must be responded to are any from HMCTS regarding a court claim. Even a Letter of Claim (LoC) from a bulk litigation company does not have to be responded to, although we do advise that they should be, and again, we provide the content of the email response.

As this is a (not so) Smart Parking PCN (assuming it is even issued), as long as the advice is followed and a few minutes of reading the advice and acting on it once every few months until this concludes, is not exactly an effort. It is all a matter of emotion and, if treated correctly, a great life learning experience and education on how to stand up for your rights.