London Borough of Lambeth (26 005 128)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council refusing to refund penalty charge notices he had paid. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council refused to refund paid parking penalty charge notices he had paid after he presented evidence his number plates had been cloned.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X says his number plates were cloned, and he found out about the nine penalty charge notices when bailiffs arrived. He paid for three of these.
- Mr X approached the Traffic Enforcement Centre about the remaining six penalty charge notices and the Council agreed to refund these. It said it would refund the enforcement fee for the three charges Mr X had paid but not the payments.
- The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether Mr X agrees with the decision.
- I will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision to justify an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman