UKPC/DRP parking fine, Kind of overwhelmed and unsure what to do Options

[Ubermik]

I seem to be in a bit of a mess with a UKPC parking fine which is in the hands of DRP debt collectors


A brief outline, I was driving home in heavy traffic and the screen in the console started complaining about coolant level, by the time I was nearly in Birmingham the temperature
guage was well into the red so I pulled onto a macdonalds drive through ate my food and then had a look at the problem. The water was totally gone out of the expansion tank, so
using my now empty coffee cup I gradually filled it back up and found a leak from one of the hoses even when the engine wasn't running


As I did know there was a parking restriction I went back into the macdonalds and explained the problem to the girl on the counter whilst getting another coffee and that I was planning
on waiting until the traffic died down so I had a good chance at getting home in one go, as rush hour traffic around Birmingham is horrendous. The girls said it was ok and I never gave it
another thought


Then a few days ago (this is 2 months after the incident), my son who works in Prague Whatsapped me photos of a letter from DRP which had been sent to his house in the UK

As we have the same first and last name, but different middle names its not the first time this has happened, but neither of us had any letters before the DRP letter


As the 14 day appeal thing I've read about has obviously now lapsed I am not sure what to do, I contacted DRP to give them the correct address and they said UKPC did have my address
to at first and sent a letter there (I am guessing it was probably more than one), I have a good idea why I never got it/them, but thats not important as it doesn't alter the current state
of play though

So I am not really sure where to go from here. I have been on ESA since I had chemotherapy and already pay some of my bills from my benefits so I'm not really in a position to have even
more stoppages plus as far as I was aware the girl or the manager had done whatever it is they do when someone is there over the time and they know about it

The car park was practically empty so its not like I was stopping any customers from using the spot or anything like that either


So any advice would be appreciated or even just a heads up on what will happen now as I told the man at DRP I wasn't in a position to pay, explained that I thought I had cleared it with the
store and that as I couldn't appeal it I would have to wait until they took me to court

So thats where I am at the moment

Just kind of annoyed that I didnt find out about this till 2 months after the date so the 14 day appeal thing is kind of pointless

Anyway, thank you in advance for any advice or even just for an idea of where the process will go from here so I know what to expect


Regards


Mike