Parking fine for vintage tractor

The owner of a vintage tractor said he was stunned to get a parking ticket for his 1957 Ferguson machine which had not left its storage shed for years.

Derek Coldrick, 61, received the £60 penalty ticket from Herefordshire Council claiming his tractor was parked illegally in Broad Street, Hereford.

news.bbc.co.uk...

I wonder how someone got his number from the plate in the first place?
They must have had to get inside the shed to read the plate seeing as it's not been out, unless the shed was open with the plate showing the moment the plate 'cloner' was going past.

Chances of that are slim, but not improbable.

Maybe it's got something to do with all the DVLA details being lost the other week?www.abovetopsecret.com...

But who learns to drive on a 3mph tractor?...and lives in Iowa?..and drives in the UK?

The only other thing I can think of is the tractor may have been in a magazine. like 'Tractor weekly' or 'combine harvest special' or even 'Tractor spreads'.

Who knows?

My brother-in-law got a parking ticket in New Orleans when he was more than 300 miles away in Shreveport.

I'm not sure how he got it worked out, but it was an administrative error and he was not held accountable.

Things might work differently in England, but all it really takes is a transposed number to create such an error.

Our tickets have some information describing the vehicle and if those don't match, the error becomes evident.

Also, license plates for commercial vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, farm equipment, etc., have different alphanumeric sequences and are clearly marked for which type of vehicle they are for.

Nonetheless, the matter has been resolved.

When Mr Coldrick, who lives in Cirencester, contested the ticket, Herefordshire Council accepted his explanation and cancelled the penalty charge

news.bbc.co.uk...

[edit on 2008/1/9 by GradyPhilpott]