Gran wins battle with parking firm who fined her £170 for 65-second breach

SWNS

Angela Jones, 60, popped into town to collect some photographs and pulled into Kings Heath High Street car park in Birmingham.  One of the ticket machines was broken and a sign said she needed to scan a QR code in order to pay on her phone.  Angela says she tried downloading the app but became suspicious it was a scam so deleted it from her phone and left the car park on October 31.  A week later she received a £100 fine from Parking Charge Collections Ltd (PCC), saying she had exceeded the five-minute limit by 65 seconds.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Angela Jones. I drove into a car park on Kingsheath High Street in October last year.

00:07I got out of the car, I tried to pay at the machine but the machine wasn't working.

00:12I asked the man who was parked next to me how he had paid. He said he'd downloaded the app.

00:18I tried to download the app but the car park is run by PCC and the app came up as Parkopedia

00:25which bore no resemblance to the signage at all. I'd just done my online training at work

00:31which said that people put fake QR codes over the top of genuine QR codes so I deleted the app.

00:38When I found I couldn't pay I left the car park. I was in there for a total of 6 minutes and 5 seconds

00:45and I received a £100 fine which I appealed. First of all I appealed to the Independent Appeal Service

00:53but they said I had to go back to the company that issued the fine so I went to them and appealed

00:59but they rejected my appeal because I was there for 6 minutes and 5 seconds and their grace period is 5 minutes.

01:05I then took my appeal to the Independent Appeal Service but then my appeal was rejected by them

01:12because they said I didn't verify my email account and they did that by email.

01:17So then I got a letter from a solicitor threatening me with court action and it would affect my credit rating

01:24and it would be on my records for the next 6 years. It was intimidating and threatening in the wording

01:31of the letter from the solicitor and I was so scared that if it went to court I would lose

01:37and I'd end up with court costs as well so I paid the fine. I contacted my MP about it

01:44and he acted on my behalf and the company have now squashed the fine.

01:50But I think the legislation regarding private land and their grace periods needs to be looked at

01:57because if you've got a pram to get out of the car or you've got a walker if you're elderly

02:03or you haven't got a smartphone or you haven't got a signal, you're over the 5 minutes before you know it.

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