Right registration plate......Wrong person

[Westbourne]

Hi, First time post so please be gentle LOl.

Right, just a short synopsis of the story so far:

My Husband received a letter from Town and City Parking a few weeks ago. It basically said we hadn't paid a Civil Penalty Notice fine for an incident which occured in the car park of Asda in Qeensferry Cheshire.

We have never been to queensferry, let alone Asda of the same place. I wrote to them and explained that there must be a mistake. I received a letter back, and a copy of the Civil Penalty Notice. Upon checking the details it was apparent that there was some mistake somewhere. The registration and vehicle make matched ours but, the colour, tax expiry date, engine type (ours deisal, ticket petrol) and obviously the fact that we have never been there, were all different.

I rang the company and explained this and was asked to provide copies of the tax disc and registration document. I prepared a letter and provided the documents and put them in the post.

Yesteday I received a letter from a debt recovery company. The debt had been passed to them and had increased from £30 - £50+. I couldn't beleive it!!! I rang this company and explained that we were disputing the ticket and couldn't understand why it had been passed on to them. They then asked me for further copies of the documents. I refused on the basis that I don't wish to send these details to every tom dick and harry. I was told that the Town and City Parking company only give 7 days to receive documentation and after this they class it as you haven't responded. Now bearing in mind we have just had postal strikes which may have held our letter up........I find that unbelievable.

So the present situation is .......we have to now prove to the debt company that we were not at this store on the said day so couldn't possibly have committed any type of offence or pay up!!! or be taken to court to recover the debt!!!

Has anyone got any advice that may help us............other than sending further copies of our documents to god knows who.

What an unbelievable situation !!!! All this hassle for an offence we knew nothing about and certainly wasn't involved in.

Thanks in advance Karen.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

As I said on a previous similar thread, the important issue for you here is the potential for your car to have been cloned. This is what you need advice on. Sadly I'm not experienced to give you tis advice, someone else may be able to, other wise if you are a member of the AA or RAC etc I would talk to them.

As far as the situation with Town and City Parking is concerned I would write to them and the debt collectors as follows:

Dear Sirs,

[Give reference]

I refer to the captioned. I deny any liability to you in respect of the above. The information that you have provided to me and the information I have provided to you give me reason to believe that my vehicle may have been cloned and I am acting accordingly.

It may be that the authorities will be in touch with you as part of their investigations and naturally I assume that you will render them all assistance and in the meantime, preserve the data that you have.

No doubt that in lioght of this you will agree that you can take no further action in respect of this "parking charge notice".

Yours faithfully