Taken to court over a crime I did not commit!

adamfleming

A little less than a year ago I sold my old crappy broken car to a man who saw my online advert for it. It was my first car and naively I didn't know how to go about selling it, the man ensured me it was simple though, he also convinced me to give him the car registration log book with my details filled in. So I sold him the car and it remained in my name.

As you can imagine he wasn't very careful with the car and picked up a few fines including a lot of M50 toll charges (Which I was able to clear up with them thankfully) and a parking fine.

Once the parking fine came in I got in touch with the department of transport and got a letter to say I ceased ownership when I sold the car.

However the council where the parking offence took place have been in touch and told me I needed to pay e200 for the fine, or go to court. I argued that it wasn't me and gave them the letter saying I ceased ownership before the crime took place.

They said I needed to provide details of the person I sold to. Problem is I don't have any! And phone records dont go back that far to try get his number.

The council said they would get back to me about the matter but never did so I guessed they had dropped the charge seeing as I didn't commit the offence and had no details of who did.

I then get a letter from solicitors saying they are taking me to court over it. I do remember that in one of the original letters (saying I had to pay e200) said if I don't I'll have to pay up to e1000 in court.

Just seems crazy that I might have to pay e1000 for something I did not do and that some man tricked me into by taking the car log book.

Has anybody been in this situation before? Is it likely that if I explain the situation in court they will understand and I don't have to pay the fine?

FreudianSlippers

No legal advice per charter.