Portland mum feels harassed after £170 Euro Car Parks fine

Lisa Perkins, 50, was on her way to Wilko in Weymouth and parked in the St Nicholas Street car park.

Tha car park is privately owned by Euro Car Parks, and to pay at the machine you have to type in the licence plate details of the car being used. Alternatively, you can use the paybyphone app.   

Putting a pound in the machine, Miss Perkins thought ‘nothing of it’ as she paid and displayed, spending 42 minutes in the town before driving home.

The following Friday, Miss Perkins received correspondence from Euro Car Parks, saying they were fining her up to £100 for 'no valid pay and display'.

Although the incident happened back in July, Miss Perkins is still appealing the fine now. 

Upon closer inspection of her ticket, which she kept, Miss Perkins noticed that the machine had incorrectly printed off her licence plate, missing the first two letters.

Miss Perkins says she filled in the registration 'perfectly' when paying for the parking as she was borrowing her daughter’s car whilst she was on holiday - so she needed to double check it. She claims the machine didn't print the ticket correctly.

She said: “I paid by coins because I didn’t have the app and I paid and displayed, and I was looking at the licence plate to make sure I was entering it correctly.”

Miss Perkins, who refuses to pay the fine, has now received four letters and a phone call from a debt recovery agency, and says the situation has ‘felt like harassment.’

She said, “I’m really stressed, and I don’t need this hassle - you do not expect this to happen.”

Miss Perkins called the agency, who told her that the case was dropped, only to receive another letter from them charging her £170 after that.

Euro Car Parks is a member of the British Parking Association, which represents the UK’s parking and mobility sector.

A spokesperson from the association said: “No one wants to receive a parking charge for making a mistake when entering their vehicle registration number when they have paid for parking.

“Motorists, car park operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers all have a responsibility in ensuring that obvious and inadvertent errors do not lead to unjustified charges.

“The British Parking Association’s code of practice for managing parking on private land states that if a minor keying error, such as entering an 0 instead of O, or getting up to one letter or number wrong leads to a PCN being issued and the motorist appeals, we would expect that the PCN is cancelled at the first stage of appeal,” they added.

Euro Car Parks have been approached for comment.