Is parking ticket valid if the numberplate was recorded incorrectly?

Q. When issuing me with a parking ticket, the enforcement officer wrote out the number of my registration plate incorrectly — the two numbers in the middle are wrong. Is it still valid? 

GM, London

A. An incorrect recording of your vehicle registration plate will mean it will be difficult for the enforcement authority to trace you, but a clerical error of this nature does not invalidate a parking ticket.

Whether it is a fixed penalty notice (issued by the police) or a penalty charge notice (issued by the local council, as is usually the case in London), the ticket/notice must give reasonable particulars of the circumstances of the alleged offence.

Additionally, it must specify the suspended enforcement period (the length of time you have to pay the penalty before proceedings will be issued), the amount of the penalty, the address at which the penalty may be paid, the date of the contravention and the date of served notice. If your ticket contained all of the above information, the error made when recording your registration plate would not invalidate it.

MR LOOPHOLE
Nick Freeman is a solicitor who runs a legal practice in Manchester specialising in road traffic law – read more from Nick here.

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