A FURIOUS woman was slapped with a £100 parking fine, despite buying a ticket in a private car park.
Tracy Cartmel, from Cornwall, paid £2.50 for a ticket when she and her husband went out for dinner in Truro.
However, despite paying for parking on July 16, they were met with a £100 fine, claiming the registration number was entered incorrectly.
Fuming, Tracy branded the fine “disgusting” and “a robbery” and even after appealing the fine, they were told it would be upheld as they “didn’t follow the process.”
Tracy said: “It really does my head in. I wouldn’t mind being fined if I didn’t pay, but we did.
“It took us three attempts to put the car registration into the machine and then the machine took our £2.50 and provided a ticket. We placed this on the windscreen and went for our meal. We did not check the ticket.”
She argued that she had paid the correct amount of money for her stay so that should be enough for Napier Parking.
Tracy insisted there was something wrong with the machine and that they will “have to take her to court” after she refused to pay the fine.
‘DISGUSTING’
“It makes you think how much money are they making from people? It’s just robbery,” she added.
“There should be a change in the law to stop these companies doing what they want, they are getting away with robbing people.”
She has now shunned private car parks and has vowed only to use council car parks.
James de Savary, managing director at Napier Parking said: “There was no fault with the machine I have checked the records.
“At this car park motorists are required to enter their full and correct registration; this is really important so that we can detect who has paid and who has not.
“In this case no session was detected for the vehicle. A fixed charge of £100 reduced to £50 was issued for payment made within 14 days.
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“An appeal was received, a ticket was presented, that ticket showed that the vehicle registration entered was just WK and not the full registration. As a gesture the appeals team reduced the charge to £20 so that a contribution to our costs was made.”
“The IAS rejected that further appeal and the full charge was therefore due of £100. However, as a gesture, we further reduced the charge to £40 for a limited time. That charge has not been paid to date.”
He insisted that the terms and conditions were not complied with in Tracy’s case and that the fine will remain in place.