This is a new one on me with regards to PCNs. I was lucky enough today to receive one from Excel. This was delivered in the form of a kosher penalty charge ie. it was in a small yellow and black plastic pouch and the ticket inside looked like one that would be issued by a traffic warden. It was attached to the window on the driver's side of my car. My question is that surely this format of ticket must contravene some law or other. Firstly, because it could be mistaken for an authentic parking fine and also that Excel could be seen to be masquerading as a public authority such as the police or local council. Furthermore I am supposed to have been guilty of a 'contravention code'. In this case it was code '81' - parked in a restricted area of the car park. What the hell does that mean? I was parked over the 3 hours 'permitted' in that car park yet the attendant has recorded that the car was seen at 13.15 and then the [causing problems] fleecing ticket was issued at 13.30. I arrived at the car park at 12.50 - so what is their logic on this one? I am none the wiser, but I will definitely be ignoring their illegal robbing demands. Please report any other tickets of this type you may have received as I'd be interested to read about them. :mad::confused:

Ta kiptower, Just as I suspected and wanted to get confirmed. This sort of thing really enrages me and after being shafted with charges by the banks there is no way in hell this mickey mouse company is getting its hands on my brass!

Re: Yeh, you guessed it Civil Enforcement Ltd I was lucky enough to receive one of those charming PCNs from CEL today, written in a mix of bold black and red type with a rather alluring blue background. After perusing this forum and and those on moneysavingexpert, I've arrived at the conclusion that it is best to ignore them, but I do have one slight concern that I would appreciate some feedback about. The situation is as follows - a couple of weekends ago I parked my car in a retail park car park in a suburb on the edges of my city. I met my friend in the car park and we went on to enjoy the morning at a car boot sale, in another town followed by lunch. I was therefore parked in the said car park for at least 5 hours. I was completely oblivious to the fact that the car park contained such signage warning about overstaying a certain parking time limit. In fact, I rarley visit that side of town and only parked there in order to meet my friend who suggested I do so, as she was coming from the opposite direction. Consequently I have no idea what the parking 'restrictions' are at the particular car park and don't know by how much I overstayed the limit. My question is does the advice to ignore still apply in my case? Thanks so much for any advice given, it's gratefully recieved.