The appellant is not disputing the issue of the ticket, but advised Roads Service that he had sent a cheque for £30.00 as payment.

By representations dated 25^th January 2008 the appellant stated that he had written a cheque on 15^th December 2007 and that he had retained the cheque stub but the cheque had not been cashed.    By a Notice of Rejection of Representations issued on 20^th February 2008 the appellant was advised that the outstanding charge was £60.00 as no payment had been received. 

By representations dated 26^th February 2008 the appellant forwarded a cheque for £30.00 and enclosed a photocopy of the cheque stub showing the date and payee. The appellant contacted the Roads Service by telephone on 11^th March 2008 and was advised that the original £30.00 cheque was not received and that Roads Service was not responsible for delivery failures, he spoke to a supervisor and expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision.

As there are an increasing number of appeals coming before the Adjudicators in respect of late payment due to postal delays or postal failures I have set out the relevant law as follows;

Article 5(3)(d) of The Traffic Management (NI) Order 2005 provides that a discounted rate is available when the penalty charge is paid within the fourteen day period from the issue of the PCN.

The fact that the Order requires the penalty charge to be “paid” within the fourteen day period means that the payments must have actually been received by the Roads Service as paid is the past tense of “to pay”, it is not sufficient for the payment to have been forwarded within the fourteen day period.

Whilst it is clear that the Appellant did forward the payment as claimed there is no discretion under the legislation to extend the payment period in these circumstances.  Posting a payment such as a cheque or postal order does not in my view come within the definition of “paid” within the legislation i.e. Article 2(4).

“(4) In determining for the purposes of any provision of this Order whether a penalty charge or other amount has been paid before the end of a particular period, it shall be taken to have been paid when it is received by the Department(Roads Service).”

The fact that the payment has to be “received” within fourteen days is also set out on the reverse of the PCN issued by the Roads Service under the heading “How to Pay” where it states that payment must be received within fourteen days of the date of issue.  It also sets out the method of payment which includes by telephone using a credit card or by means of the internet.  If appellants wish to take advantage of the discounted rate they may be better advised to use either of these faster methods of payment when payment is automatically confirmed at the time of the transaction.

I entirely accept that the appellant has genuinely attempted to pay within the fourteen day time period, Roads Service have not exercised their discretion to accept late payment and I do not have any discretion to exercise under the legislation.  The appeal therefore is unfortunately refused.  The appellant is therefore liable to pay the outstanding balance of £30.00.

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