A farmer in England (I checked, Manny, it is in England, not Australia) who lives 150 miles from London was given a parking ticket for his tractor. Fair enough. The problem is that the ticket was for parking in a London borough. Read it all here.
Ok, in the UK you actually make your own license plates ( or have them made for you) and so its pretty easy to "clone" a number if you want and that’s what could have happened, or there was a data entry problem. However, the 74 year old farmer, who hasn’t been to London in 45 years, says he’s spend $60 in phone charges just trying to get it straightened out, and its not resolved yet.
Shouldn’t it be on the government to prove that his tractor was in London, not the other way around. On its face this is absurd.
No wonder the UK’s parking enforcement folks get such a bums rush in the local press. Looks like much of it is deserved.
JVH
One Response
This happened in California about 10 years ago. A gentleman had a personalized license plate of “Blank”. He thought it was funny until he received thousands of dollars in parking fines. When a car did not have a license plate many officers would write the word “blank” in the field and hence the problem. He fought in court until it was finally thrown out. Two of the tickets were written within minutes of each other one in San Francisco and one in San Diego. He still had to court and fight it. Time, energy, and money spent.