Fixed Parking Penalty Charge - Police

[Jodieluke]

I went to visit a friend tonight, left my car parked on the street as I always do, returned to my car to find a "Fixed Penalty Notice" apparently issued by West Yorkshire police.

I am totally baffled as why I have been given a ticket, upon further inspection of the fixed penalty notice I can see that there is no "offence code" given as to why I was issued the fine...

Also the location of where it says my car was parked is wrong, they have written down the wrong street name.

If I do not wish to pay this fine then I have to request the matter be dealt with by a court.

Any advice please?

[Conniff]

You need to question the validity of the ticket first and find out what the offence was.

[Jodieluke]

It does not give me any option to find out further information about the ticket, only that if I do not wish to pay then I have to go to court.

[raydetinu]

Return the ticket and say you wish to go court, and also that you consider you have not commited any offence. I doubt you will here any more about it! unless you have commited an offence that is. have they got a time and date on the ticket, together with the police officers number and station?

[Rob S]

The other option is to write to the police station concerned (address it to the borough or divisional commander) and point out that the ticket has inaccuracies and that the best course of action is for them to cancel the ticket.

[patdavies]

Please do remember that an FPN is merely an offer to avoid court by paying the fixed penalty. As such, it does not have to be as accurate as the law is not as prescriptive as it is for PCNs.

If you elect for court, then the FPN is voided and becomes irrelevant in any further action. It will be replaced by a summons. If the summons is accurate then you could be in trouble. You cannot offer up a dodgy FPN as a defence as the court will likely rule that if you had a query/didn't understand then you should have contacted the Officer or Station concerned.

[BaldyBaldwin]

does this ticket have your registration no. on it?

[Jodieluke]

Originally Posted by BaldyBaldwin

does this ticket have your registration no. on it?

It does have my registration yes as well as the date and time of the alleged offence.

I am considering ringing up west yorkshire police today to find out why the ticket was issued in the first place.

The cost is only 30 bob, but its the principal of the matter.

[Jodieluke]

Apparently it is too early to find out what exactly the ticket was issued for, the woman I spoke to in the processing department has advised me to write a letter stating that their are discrepancies on the fpn in order to find out if the ticket is valid.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

Originally Posted by Jodieluke

The cost is only 30 bob, but its the principal of the matter.

Then one of two things applies:

1) It's very old (pre decimalisation) and unlikely to be followed up.
2) It's a cheap get-out at £1.50 in modern parlance.

[gbmud]

I got one of these the other day too, from Wiltshire Police. The make and model on the ticket are not wholly correct and the ticket appears to have been issued for the offence code 1908 with the words 'NO WAITING' written next to it - here it is.




Now, the fact of the matter is that I was parked in a bay marked 'LOADING ONLY' at the time and I was not involved in making commercial collections or deliveries, although I was collecting a substantial amount of cash from the bank.

From what it says above, if I opt to go to court then the fact that the ticket seems to be inaccurate is not relevant, is that correct? Assuming that it is correct, I will have to rely on the fact that the road markings do not seem to conform to the regulations set out in The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. Has anyone got any advice or experience to offer here?

If it does go to court then I assume that the police will make an application for costs as well as the fine. Assuming that I were to win at court, could I too make an application for costs incurred in compiling my defence, attending court etc.?

Thanks

Chris

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

What you have described will not fit the criteria of loading.
Why do you think the lines were non-compliant?

[gbmud]

Thanks Bernie_the_bolt.

I thought that trying to claim loading as a defence might be pushing it.

I think that the bay is non compliant because...

According to The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002, the loading bay icon should be 100mm-200mm square. In the case of the one at the end of the bay (between the loading and disabled bays) the icon measured only 75mm square. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/02311355.gif





Here is the bay in question:



According to diagram 1028.3, Schedule 6 Road markings, each white dash marking the bay should be 600mm long. In this bay the white dashes vary between 590mm and 650mm on the road side of the bay and up to 750mm between the loading and disabled bays. Between the lines there should be a gap of 600mm minimum to 2400mm maximum. The gaps between the dashes vary from 540mm to 620mm.

The words 'LOADING ONLY' painted on the road should be between 50mm and 150mm from the white lines marking the bay. In this case the gap varies between 30mm and 60mm.

Any comments? I would especially like to hear from anyone who has ever used this defence.

Thanks

Chris