advice on arguing a fine

i got a parking ticket when my bike was covered and nothing was visible. The guy has lifted up the cover to take a photo of the tax disc and there is a photo of the fine stuck to my cover.

However, he was halfway through this process of giving me the fine when i jumped on the bike and left.

Now this was the day i moved, so they have sent the fine to wrong address twice and now they claim i have to pay the full amount because i did not pay it in the time frame specified.

This was in camden. can i argue that he touched the bike, therefore the fine is illegal as i have heard mentioned in soho?
can i argue that i shouldn't have to pay the full amount because they were sending it to the wrong address?

can i argue that i shouldn't have to pay the fine at all as i moved the bike before the fine was issued? and god knows how there is a photo of the notice on the cover, i was there, and there was no notice on the cover when i left while he was still writing things down in his little book.

i have a witness in the form of sid squid, who was there helping me move, but as he is unavailable and has bigger things to worry about at the moment, i am hoping for some help here.

Zig will be along soon to offer his advice as our resident parking ticket expert.

[Spiderman]

And as if by magic....


Hmmm, lots of angles here. You say the ticket wasnt issued when you moved the bike right yet they have submitted a pic showing the ticket on the cover...not on the bike right?
The fact they sent it to the "wrong" address they will blame on you/DVLA as they have attempted to make contact with you at the address the bike is registered at. The best you could get going down that road is to pay the reduced amount. After all if you didnt know you had a ticket how can you pay in the 14 day arm-twisting period?

More importantly tho, did they give you a picture showing the ticket on the bike as opposed to the cover?
Do you have a tax disc displayed on your bike? or do you keep it in your pocket etc?

The tricky bit here is that if you say he shouldnt have removed the cover they can argue that you used the cover becasue you knew you were illegaly parked.
Yes by law there should be a "senior" warden present too to ensure there is no damage to the bike while its being uncovered but by saying all this you are pretty much admitting to the bike having been parked illegaly and knowingly illegaly too.

If there is no pic showing ticket on your bike but one showing it on a cover then who's to say that cover was on your bike? That pic could have been taken of a bike that was covered close by and ticketed.

There is a slim chance you could appeal this and get away with it for technicalities but if you do appeal and loose you have to pay the full amount.

There is no doubt in my mind tho that if you choose to go down the "i'll pay the reduced amount" road that they wont give you the chance to do so.

Can you post up what pics they did send you?

spidey, i will probably be able to scan and send you a copy of the notice tomorrow if i take it to work, or i can bring it down to soho on friday. seeing as the only reason i got this notice was because my old flatmate got off his a*!rse and forwarded it to me now. so i don't know what time frame i am in here. i have yet to receive the notice at my current address, which was lodged with the dvla soon after i moved.
the tax disc in the photo is unreadable, and there is no sign of the plate at all. its not my bike as the tax disc photo does not have anything identifiying it as my bike, and the writing on the disc cannot be read. but is that just the quality of the photo that gets printed out? do they have a better quality original?

What strikes me here is: do they have a photo which BOTH identifies your vehicle AND shows it's illegally parked? If not you could use that to argue the case.

[Spiderman]

i dont want to post publicaly what i know about the tax disc but will discuss it with you in person. Probably friday is best if you can bring it down then.
And no i think their photos are not much better than the quality they print off for you.

But like Bear says, if there is no picture showing the bike commiting the offence or a pic showing your reg plate then it should be easy enought o appeal against. Just ask you old flatmates to let you know as soon as here is any more ost for you as you really cant afford to loose time from when they send the notice to owner (ok you have 28 days but best not to waste most of that on not having the paperwork)

update:
i received a letter from my friendly council who cannot spell my name, but it appears someone agreed with me and have withdrawn the fine based on the evidence i sent to them. 'the evidence available here does not meet the high standards required by this authority'
chalk one up for common sense!

Good for you hun! glad they withdrew it!