Thread: Police Penalty Notice for being incorrectly parked - Advice Please :-(

Hi everyone, I am a newbie here so go easy on me!


I got a funny one for you guys.


On Friday night at around 8pm I parked my Classic Mini (normally) on my local high street in a free parking space. When I came to collect my car on Saturday morning at around 9:45am it had a parking ticket on it. I knew 100% there were no parking restrictions in the area. The ticket was from the MET claiming my car was 'Incorrectly parked in a free parking place'.


Some bystanders came up to me and said they thought my car was going to get towed. I said what do you mean? They said the police had just been round with a tow/pickup truck and turned my car back to being parallel to the kerb as my back wheels were in the middle of the road! I.e. my car was facing the kerb and sticking out of the parking bay causing an obstruction to traffic!


The only explanation I can think of is that some drunken yobs fancied a laugh and turned my car round in the night on the way back from the pub! Now I have to foot the £40 fine!!


Any suggestions would be gratefully received!


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Originally Posted by Haqi

Hi everyone, I am a newbie here so go easy on me!


I got a funny one for you guys.


On Friday night at around 8pm I parked my Classic Mini (normally) on my local high street in a free parking space. When I came to collect my car on Saturday morning at around 9:45am it had a parking ticket on it. I knew 100% there were no parking restrictions in the area. The ticket was from the MET claiming my car was 'Incorrectly parked in a free parking place'.


Some bystanders came up to me and said they thought my car was going to get towed. I said what do you mean? They said the police had just been round with a tow/pickup truck and turned my car back to being parallel to the kerb as my back wheels were in the middle of the road! I.e. my car was facing the kerb and sticking out of the parking bay causing an obstruction to traffic!


The only explanation I can think of is that some drunken yobs fancied a laugh and turned my car round in the night on the way back from the pub! Now I have to foot the £40 fine!!


Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

Do you have any witnesses to state that your car was correctly parked up when you left it.

Any CCTV in the area?

Hiya, I am sure i can find some witnesses, it was outside a nursing home so they would have staff coming and going all through the night. Not sure about CCTV though
Just not sure if £40 is worth all the hassle and if i end up in court and loose i have to pay the costs too!
Maybe i should just join havinastella and laugh about it

Originally Posted by Haqi

Hiya, I am sure i can find some witnesses, it was outside a nursing home so they would have staff coming and going all through the night. Not sure about CCTV though
Just not sure if £40 is worth all the hassle and if i end up in court and loose i have to pay the costs too!
Maybe i should just join havinastella and laugh about it

you shouldnt end up in court if you have witnesses.

Write to the issuing authority, state that you parked the car correctly at the time.
Obtain witness statements to the fact and also any witnesses that saw drunken yobs moving your car.

To take you to court they need evidence and to prove beyond any resonable doubt you incorrectly parked.
Obtain cctv footage if you can. I know this sounds like a lot of hassle but they should drop this due to lack of evidence.

One important point (well two actually)

1) for an FPN, the driver is liable and the Police have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the driver parked in this manner; you only have to provide doubt on the balance of probabilities.

2) You must take positive action to elect for trial. If you simply ignore it, then it becomes a default conviction. The ball is in your court; not theirs.

Originally Posted by patdavies

One important point (well two actually)

1) for an FPN, the driver is liable and the Police have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the driver parked in this manner; you only have to provide doubt on the balance of probabilities.

2) You must take positive action to elect for trial. If you simply ignore it, then it becomes a default conviction. The ball is in your court; not theirs.

hello patdavies, i see what you are saying mate.

I was thinking along the lines of an informal letter to the authorities
with the witness statements and proof so as not to instigate court proceedings at all. With any luck they will see sense and cancell the ticket for the op and save everyone a wasted paper trail and an unessecary court trial.

What do you think??