Mr Mustard's new charity arrangements

Mr Mustard has decided to formalise the way in which charity donations are made for his PCN help.

His raison d'etre

Mr Mustard is here, mostly, to fight against unfair PCN and to persist through the two or three possible challenges (PCN in the post have two possible challenges whereas if the PCN is put on the car there are three chances to argue) and through the Traffic Enforcement Centre if necessary.

If you only want to make the first challenge and then pay at 50% you don't need Mr Mustard as only a small percentage of informal challenges (as the first challenge in response to a PCN put on your vehicle are known) are accepted. Mr Mustard has completed 186 PCN in 2016 of which only 34 were cancelled at the informal stage, or almost 1 in 5, so the majority of informal challenges are clearly rejected. That is a story in itself as Mr Mustard prevails, in the end, 9 times out of 10 so clearly a greater proportion of informal challenges should have been accepted.

Disbursements

Mr Mustard attends the tribunal most weeks. That costs him £8.70 on the tube and usually £2 on a Boris bike. He also pays out £1.74 for every 'signed for' letter which has to be sent (for Barnet challenges can be made on line to barnet@nsl.co.uk) as you can't trust councils not to 'lose' correspondence. He makes most non-Barnet appeals to London Tribunals (formerly PATAS) on line but conversely Barnet ones have to go by post until they update their software. Then there are envelopes, paper & ink cartridges to buy. All in all about £1,000 a year is spent being Mr Mustard. That will be recovered from your voluntary contributions in the future.

£25 per PCN

At the start Mr Mustard will tell you if he has identified any possible grounds of Appeal. Do bear in mind that even if he has a number of tribunal decisions which support Mr Mustard's argument that no adjudicator is bound by any previous decision of any other adjudicator or even of him/herself. That may seem odd but is the way the Regulations have been written. It certainly makes the process more exciting for Mr Mustard. In recent times he won 8 & 7 Appeals then lost 4 & 3 in consecutive weeks! The difference was simply which adjudicator he was allocated plus the fact that the losing weeks had more moving traffic offences which are much harder to win.

If grounds are identified Mr Mustard will then ask you to send £25 to the separate bank account which has been opened for this purpose. If you are unable to afford this voluntary donation do please tell Mr Mustard. If you are likely to lose Mr Mustard will recommend that you pay up. If the discount period has passed then the PCN may as well be fought as there is nothing to lose and the discount may be offered again even when there is no legal necessity as councils are, in Mr Mustard's experience, more motivated by the desire to receive money rather than be taken to adjudication which costs them time and a c. £30 fee.

Bank details

Sort code: 16-00-38

Account number: 11395624

Account name: D R Dishman Charity

Please put your name or PCN number as a reference. Mr Mustard will pay the contributions received, less his disbursements, to the North London Hospice once a month & tweet the amount paid over.

Some people give the hospice more than £25 & some give their time or donations of worldly goods to one of the shops. You can still do this.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard