Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi Everyone,

I have received a CN from my leasing company (I am a private lessee) issued to them as they are owner/keeper, and I am a customer. They have forwarded me a VCS invoice for an alleged 'no stopping' contravention at the roundabout of exiting a long stay car park at Liverpool airport. Please see the notice and the images below.

- The reduced amount time has passed as the leasing company waited 20 days to forward me as customer the invoice, so I suspect VCS will reissue the invoice to me as 'customer', before I can make any decisions how to appeal
- The difference to the other cases here is that the leasing company has put my name down as an alleged 'Driver/Customer Name'
- So my first question is whether this affects the first response/appeal or defence?

Honestly the vehicle of which I am named as the 'customer' of appears to be stopped at the roundabout for a maximum of 37 seconds, and in one of the images there is an obstruction to the roundabout as a vehicle is passing, before the driver enters a roundabout. There was no stopping at all near the kerb, nor any exit/entry to the vehicle. In one of the images, the brake lights are not even on anymore, and in two out of three of the images the registration is not even visible. This is the most ridiculous thing as far as I can say, there is simply an approach to the roundabout, a stop to let a vehicle pass (to the best of my ability to understand the situation), at the worst case perhaps decision time for the direction to take onwards, and then entering the roundabout. I am shocked, but also I guess these scammers will do anything nowadays.

Thank you and I really appreciate any advice

Thank you, this is the back of the invoice scan below (scanned to me by the leasor company). I haven't identified the driver to them, but I fear that the leasing company has shared an identification of an alleged 'driver/customer' in their letter to VCS.

Of course, the leasing company has no information and has no evidence to identify who the driver was as they simply don't know.

The event took place nearly a month ago now, if I was to recall the event to the best of my knowledge the vehicle was stopped in front of a roundabout to let another vehicle pass, and perhaps to make a decision on the direction to continue onwards.

can you confirm you've only stopped to give way and then continued on?

Please try to avoid asking potentially leading questions.

OP, without mentioning who was driving, it would be good to know the reason for the stop - do please be honest with this answer, as the images they have included are likely to be stills from a continuous video, which they may be able to produce at a later stage. (I say this because I've seen cases where people have claimed the driver stopped to give way to traffic or some other such reason, only for VCS to produce a video showing the driver getting out and unloading a suitcase for a departing passenger).

The hire company don't know who was driving - as well as that letter they've shared, you should check they have actually nominated you to VCS, and then await a notice in your own name.

As they are not relying on POFA and there's no mention of them wanting keeper liability, you can appeal with the following:

Not yet he can't, he isn't the registered keeper.

But this will end up being discontinued.

Please don't state opinion as fact. We see VCS fairly routinely drag even the most hopeless cases to court.

Thank you both. Without naming the driver, I understand this has occurred after the vehicle has left the long stay car park after several days.

Once again I try my best to recall and imagine that in this situation the stop was brief in order to let a vehicle pass around a roundabout that is visible in one of the images, and in total lasted less than a minute counting any decision time on the direction to proceed.

I can confirm 100% there was no entry or exit to the vehicle, nor loading or unloading of any kind. Considering, as you say, how desperate VCS have become, what is the best way forward?

Yes of course, no problem at all. The situation simply warranted exiting of a long stay car park.

Show it to us, please.

There are two grounds on which you can argue against this.

1. That the notice to hirer you have now received does not comply with PoFA 2012 ( ) because the required notices were not served at the same time as the Notice To Hirer.

2. This is not “relevant land” for the purposes of PoFA 2012.

In either case, you should not identify the driver.

Show us the notice rather than just saying it’s “identical”, please. The detail is important.

VCS don't rely on PoFA with these 'Charging Notices' - instead they use the assumption that the keeper (or hirer) was the driver.

They'll keep pestering the hirer but will generally lose if it ever gets to court.

Please don’t obscure dates and times, although it’s probably not important here, per https://www.ftla.uk/private-parking-tickets/read-this-first-private-parking-charges-forum-guide/