Hi.
I would greatly appreciate some advice on whether to carry on fighting or just pay up! I received a PCN on 18th October 2017 for an alleged parking charge on 14th June 2017 from Parking Eye for a private retail park in Walsall. The payment should have been £1 for the first hour, the ANPR system picked up as having been there for 56 minutes between 1.00 and 2.00pm. As i work in the centre of Birmingham and commute from Shropshire by train I knew I wasn't the driver but knew it could have been either my wife or my step-daughter both of who visit the area regularly and both of who borrow my car on occasions as it is not used during the day. After 4 months it was not unreasonable to not remember who was driving on any particular day. Also it was not unreasonable to not have any receipts from the shops etc. I appealed to POPLA on two counts 1) the time delay in issuing the PCN and 2) the fact that I was not the driver. The appeal was rejected. I contacted Citizens Advice and they told me I should apply for a transfer of liability as I am not responsible for someone else's offences. I wrote to Parking Eye asking for a transfer of liability and gave them my wife and step daughters details but I just got the standard letter back saying ' you owe us £85, pay up or else'
As some background information - as part of Parking Eyes response to the POPLA appeal they issued a photograph of the car but the window screen was blanked out for some reason.
My inclination is that my wife or daughter both visit this car park regularly and know that there are parking charges but most probably entered the wrong registration forgetting they were in my car, and so I should just pay up. If I had paid up on time the fee would have been reduced to £50.
As I first stated - is it worth pursuing and what are the consequences if I get taken to court and lose?
Your advice would be greatly welcomed

Your first mistake was naming the other possible drivers.

So it would apear that you received a Notice to Keeper some considerable time after the event. With no windscreen ticket then PE have to get the notice to you, the keeper, within 14 days. If not then they lose the right to claim from the keeper.

Just in case edit your post so that the identity of the driver at the time cannot be inferred.

Post up the Notice to Keeper you received, removing identifying details but leaving dates.

You say that you weren't the driver and ParkingEye failed to deliver the Parking Notice within two weeks

You cannot therefore lose in court

POPLA assessors aren't interested in whether you owe the payment, only whether the parking notice was issued correctly
They still, however, usually manage to recognise a parking notice that completely fails to meet the conditions to recover payment from the registered keeper

Who was the assessor and what was the reason for the perverse decision

Even with a POPLA win, this isn't a case that ParkingEye will feel confident of winning in court
Their usual tactic will be to pass the account to a debt collector that will add made-up charges but can and should be ignored

CAB is about the worst possible source of advice for private parking notices
Its advisors' crib sheet was written by the British Parking Association, ParkingEye's trade body

You could write to ParkingEye and tell it that you're exercising your right to reject POPLA's perverse decision

Further to the comments about CAB their advice is so wrong. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4, gives them the right to make you responsible for the actions of others, completely contrary to what CAB told you. Here's a link to the Protection Of Freedoms Act. In your case paragraph 9 would be relevant.

You wrote to PE transferring liability but if you didn't specify a driver then they woudl not be able to take action. Giving a choice of two is not good enough. Normally identifying the driver removes all liability from the keeper.

The way forward here is to write back to PE again pointing out their failure to comply with POFA and hence you cannot be liable for the actions of the driver. But to really help we need to see the documents. If your POPLA appeal did not specifically mention POFA then that's why it failed, even though it should have cancelled the charge because of the delay. But you write to POPLA as though you are writing to a year old.

Thank you for your replies ( I wasn't expecting so quickly so thank you ) I will read them all again in detail and decide on a course of action - thank you

Let us see the Notice to Keeper that you received, both sides, removing identifying details but leaving dates. If PE know that they have failed to comply with POFA then they often don't send a compliant NTK.