{"id":2553,"date":"2025-04-21T23:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2025-04-23T08:55:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T08:55:35","slug":"faulty-machines-blamed-for-thousands-of-parking-fines-up-to-170","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/21\/faulty-machines-blamed-for-thousands-of-parking-fines-up-to-170\/","title":{"rendered":"Faulty machines blamed for \u2018thousands\u2019 of parking fines up to \u00a3170\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Maurizio\t<\/div>
One driver told Metro he received a fine despite not being anywhere near the Euro Car Parks (Picture: Belinda Jiao)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Drivers across the UK have accused private parking firms of \u2018unfair\u2019 tickets. <\/p>\n

The most morbid case was for Maurizio Capoccia, from Enfield, London<\/a>, who received a \u00a3100 from Euro Car Parks, saying he had parked at a Sainsbury\u2019s<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, Maurizio told Metro <\/strong>he was at a funeral<\/a> on the other side of town, and he was eventually able to prove it with CCTV from the church. <\/p>\n

Other drivers have come forward claiming a faulty machine has landed them with a ticket. <\/p>\n

One of them is Matt Chambers, who received a \u00a3100 Parking Charge Notice (PCN) after leaving his car at the Excel Parking site in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, in February. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
Campaigners claimed \u2018thousands\u2019 of drivers could be affected (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 35-year-old business owner claimed the system had \u2018only registered the letter B for my number plate,\u2019 but he entered it correctly. <\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s not right. I\u2019m adamant I put the whole number plate in because I\u2019ve used that car park several times before, and it\u2019s the exact same process every time.<\/p>\n

\u2018I know how to use the machine.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Those who have ever tried to challenge a parking ticket know it can be time-consuming. <\/p>\n

\n
Comment now<\/title><span class=\"metro-comment-cta__text\">Have you been affected? Please email webnews@metro.co.uk <\/span><\/span><a class=\"metro-comment-cta__button\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\">Comment Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>While Matt continues to challenge his fine, he admitted it sometimes \u2018feels easier to pay just to make them go away.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>Maurizio remained adamant and refused to pay his fine \u2018because once you pay, they close the case,\u2019 he told <strong>Metro<\/strong> previously. <\/p>\n<p>Retired chef Lee Rogers says he received a fine from Euro Car Parks in August last year after the ticket he had bought only showed one digit of his number plate. <\/p>\n<p>The 67-year-old insists: \u2018I did not stand there and key in just the first digit.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hundreds of others have had the same problem.\u2019<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22933087 lazyload\" alt=\"Maurizio was fined for parking at a Sainsbury???s whilst he was at a funeral. Image shot on 20th Mar 2025. ?? Belinda Jiao jiao.bilin@gmail.com 07598931257 https:\/\/www.belindajiao.com\/about\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"http:\/\/softnary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_244518460-8006.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Maurizio Capoccia refused to pay the \u00a3100 fine saying he had been parked at a Sainsbury\u2019s although he was at a funeral (Picture: Belinda Jiao)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t afraid to go to court over the fine as \u2018they know I\u2019ve paid,\u2019 he said. <\/p>\n<p>We approached Euro Car Parks and Excel Parking for a comment. <\/p>\n<p>Campaigners believe \u2018thousands\u2019 of drivers could be affected by faulty machines. <\/p>\n<p>Campaigner Lynda Eagan, who helps drivers with private parking tickets, said most faulty machines involve \u2018sticky keys\u2019 as buttons pressed are not recorded correctly or devices which ask drivers to pay before full registration has been entered. <\/p>\n<p>The latter machines are \u2018set up to trap people,\u2019 she claimed, as they accept payment even if only the first letter of a registration is entered.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reaction to \u2018unfair\u2019 parking fines <\/h2>\n<p>Government figures analysed by PA news agency and the RAC Foundation in November last year found that private companies send around 41,000 parking tickets to drivers each day. <\/p>\n<p>The RAC\u2019s head of policy Simon Williams said that some parking companies are \u2018wrongly demanding\u2019 fines from drivers who have paid to park. <\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u2018Whether it\u2019s a faulty payment machine that records the wrong vehicle registration or an innocent mistake keying in their number plate, these people shouldn\u2019t have to pay the \u00a3100\u00a0parking\u00a0charge notices they are sent.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Many cases seem completely unjustified and should be thrown out at appeal, but sadly they so often aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We desperately need the Government to introduce the Private\u00a0Parking\u00a0Code of Practice to bring much-needed scrutiny to the sector.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander urged private parking companies to make a \u2018dramatic improvement\u2019 in how they deal with the public, such as \u2018machines and equipment that work.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for trade body the British Parking Association anyone who believes they have received a parking ticket issued in error should contact the parking operator and provide \u2018all the information that would be relevant for an appeal.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:webnews@metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One driver told Metro he received a fine despite not being anywhere near the Euro Car Parks (Picture: Belinda Jiao) Drivers across the UK have accused private parking firms of \u2018unfair\u2019 tickets. The most morbid case was for Maurizio Capoccia, from Enfield, London, who received a \u00a3100 from Euro Car Parks, saying he had parked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2553"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2559,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2553\/revisions\/2559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}