Thank you to everyone for taking the time to help. For your information, it was National Express East Anglia. Having further questioned my partner, it seems she did sign a piece of paper which she then put in her bag and forgot about! An expensive lesson has been learnt and as 'Grotesque' puts it we better "take this one on the chin" and pay up.

Thank you for your reply. The problem as I see it, is that my partner was led to be believe that she was being issued with a ticket and not a penalty fare. Yes, she was remiss in not reading further correspondence properly, but as she has continuously held a season ticket for the past 3 years or so, it would be easy for the train company to verify this fact. It seems a bit harsh and expensive. Perhaps you are right though and we have to learn an expensive lesson for not paying attention to correspondence.

Can somebody please help. My partner holds a monthly rail season ticket on a rolling basis. She forgot to take it with her one day on her usual journey. She realised her mistake on leaving the train and sought out the barrier guard (despite the fact she could have walked through unchecked) he issued her with a ticket and said that she could claim back the fare. The fare was in the region of £11 and my partner who is a very busy person decided not to bother. She then received a letter saying that the ticket was in fact a penalty notice and demanding the fare plus admin costs. She unfortunately she did not reply to this until another letter arrived and she handed it to me. I wrote to them explaining she held a valid season ticket but had forgotten it on this day. We have just received a letter from IAS saying that the deadline has expired for appealing and she must now pay £71.40. I know she should have dealt with this earlier, but I feel this is harsh treatment of a valid season ticket holder. Any thoughts and help please?

Thanks for your help. The PPC in question is Car Parking Management Cumbria.

Hi Barnsley Boy and friends, I wonder if you can help? I too have been having problems with a company called Rossendale Collects. In Feb, I parked in a DFS car park in Carlisle. I'm not from the town and I genuinely did not see signs displaying the usual messages. I returned to the car to find a fixed penalty notice, for 1 hr 15 mins parking, and a fine of £30 rising to £80. To be honest, I didn't think the DVLA would hand out private details to these sort of companies (just shows how naive I am) and waited, but sure enough a letter came saying "despite previous requests for payment" although this was the 1st request for payment. I feel the fine is far too high for 1hr 15mins. When I returned to the car park for a second time (just to look) I noted that the nearest sign to where I parked was about 25 yds away and side on, not facing. There are no fences round the car park, so you can easily leave without passing a sign. I have had various requests for payment via phone and mail. I unfortunately on one occasion told one of their operators the nature of my grievance and after about the 5th phone call and letter sent them the following "Dear Ms. B, As I told your representative who phoned the first time, I deny that a debt exists between us, because I had no contract with the landowner. The signs in the car park are totally inadequate and I did not see them. I have been back to the car park and taken photographs, which I will use as part of a vigorous defence, should you choose to instigate legal proceedings", Yours sincerely, I realise now that this was probably a bad move. The letters stopped for a short while, but I had a phone call yesterday, saying that the signs have been checked, are fine and bailifs would call for payment. I know legally they can't do anything without a court judgement, but do you think given the nature of our exchanges that they will instigate proceedings against me? and if they do can I still get away with no more than £80, Yours with thanks in advance, Pete