The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a penalty charge notice as it has been cancelled by the Council and there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to the complainant to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with a (PCN) after he says he sent it proof he had not incurred the fine and that his vehicle registration had been cloned. Mr X wants the PCN to be cancelled.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council says it dealt with the PCN in line with the procedure set out in law but cancelled it when it received evidence from Mr X that his vehicle had been cloned. It acknowledges that it failed to write to Mr X to confirm it had done this and apologises for this error. It says it has also taken steps to prevent this happening again in future.
We cannot add to this and the remaining injustice to Mr X is not sufficient to warrant our further involvement. We will not therefore investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to him to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman