Imagine this. You do not own a car, you are usually driving your aged mother in her car to bingo and hospital appointments etc. so don't need one and you don't really have the spare cash. Your mother hasn't been well and so you stay over at her place for a few weeks to look after her. You pop back home to pick up your post and it has the above documents within it, with the sum of c. £2,000 outstanding. (There have been more PCN since this sorry saga started).
It turns out that someone, thinking they will be clever, has registered your name and address on a car purchase, not the sort of mistake you could easily make. The guilty party then parks their car adjacent to Bounds Green tube station most days and gets a PCN for not paying and probably laughs at how they have beaten the system.
The innocent party gets a copy of the V5 that was sent in with the new owner's details. The handwriting is not his nor is the signature (and Mr Mustard compared it to the innocent party's passport) and therefore the insertion of the innocent party's name and address is reported to the police as a fraud.
The innocent party is worried about the police stopping him (they wouldn't have) and his mother's car being seized (it can't be). PCN are a civil matter, not a criminal one.
Mr Mustard ponders the best solution. He has a eureka moment. He emails Haringey Parking.
A number of these PCN seem to be at the Charge Certificate stage and doubtless your policy is to uplift the vehicle as soon as there are 3 outstanding PCN at that stage. Please can you do this in order to stop the unending stream of PCN. It looks like the vehicle is usually parked without payment in the mornings near Bounds Green tube station.
Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated
If it was your car you wouldn't invite the council to impound it. If and when they do so, they will not release it until every outstanding PCN is paid which is well on the way to the value of the car. The guilty party wasn't as smart as they thought they were. The system usually wins.
A week later this message lands in Mr Mustard's inbox:
Thank you for your email.
I have investigated your concerns and I can confirm our records have been updated. Mr Innocent will no longer be contacted about this vehicle.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
I hope that this is helpful and please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further assistance.
Well done Haringey Council. Somehow you were able to stand up Mr Mustard's story, you have moved reasonably swiftly, you have apologised when you have done nothing wrong and you have indeed been helpful.
Mr Mustard hopes this sort of nasty trick is never played on you.
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
Mr Mustard quite enjoyed this novel problem although Mr Innocent was quite agitated about the whole thing.
