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Highland pensioner vows to fight Britannia Parking after he was ‘wrongly’ fined for non-payment of car parking in Rose Street, Inverness





Sandy Morrison (inset) has vowed to fight a car park operator over an 'unfair' fine (main image, stock photo: Michael Garlick, Cartmel Racecourse Car Park: Charges and ticket machine by Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sandy Morrison (inset) has vowed to fight a car park operator over an 'unfair' fine (main image, stock photo: Michael Garlick, Cartmel Racecourse Car Park: Charges and ticket machine by Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0

A furious motorist has vowed he will see an Inverness car park operator in court - after it threatened legal action for non-payment despite him sharing bank statements proving he had.

Sandy Morrison (71), from Auldearn, said he was at his wit’s end over Britannia Parking’s non-payment appeals process, after twice sending them material showing he had paid for his parking in their Rose Street car park - only for them to blank him both times.

He says he was sent a fine for non-payment of a parking ticket, after using the parking area outside Home Bargains and Smyths Toys on September 3 last year.

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Despite saying he’d paid the ticket via the usual machine, he nevertheless was sent a letter fining him for non-payment on October 24.

Thinking it would be a simple matter to straighten out, he appealed against the fine and - no longer possessing the ticket as more than six weeks had passed - he sent a copy of his bank statement showing money leaving his account and entering theirs on the day in question.

He received no response and thought the situation had been resolved.

But then second ‘final’ reminder dropped through his letterbox on November 14

And despite once again sending proof of payment to Britannia and receiving no response back, the company came back at him with a new letter on December 12 threatening a final notice of debt recovery.

For Mr Morrison it was the last straw, and he has retorted to the “harassment and bullying” by warning Britannia he’ll “see them in court”!

Speaking after receiving that final letter, he told the Courier: “Today I got a final notice of debt recovery - this is just pure harassment and bullying.”

He continued: “[I’ve] got proof on my bank statement. I sent them a copy - sent it to them twice! I sent them proof of payment deducted for Britannia Parking and I thought that would be the end of it - but then today I got a final notice of debt recovery.

“I showed them money was taken off. There’s proof of payment. So I’ll see you in court [Britannia].”

Sandy Morrison.
Sandy Morrison.

He added that he believes any court would take one look at his bank statement and throw out any case Britannia tried to present.

But although he’s confident that the car park operator has not got a leg to stand on, the stress of receiving multiple strongly worded letters demanding payment is not something he or his wife should have to deal with.

“They seem to be determined to push [their demand] for £171 forward,” he said. “The last thing we need is something like this getting on our credit rating. We are both pensioners, we don’t need this stress.”

Britannia Parking was approached for comment but failed to respond.

Mr Morrison has since received another letter in January from the agency contracted by Britannia to pursue the bill. Despite saying he had appealed, the agency’s correspondence claimed he had not lodged it within the allotted time window - something Mr Morrison has strongly disputed as he insists he provided proof of payment to Britannia in response to the very first letter it sent to him.

Mr Morrison’s experiences with Britannia come amid rising anger in the UK at parking operators, with a number of high profile stories accusing them of acting like rogue companies after people were charged for failing to pay within five minutes of arrival, or for inadvertent breaches - or even through no fault of their own due to mobile network issues or faulty machines.

One particularly high profile case was that of Rosey Hudson, who was taken to court after accruing £1906 in fines after not being able to pay for parking within five minutes of her arrival at a car park in Derby.

The company running that car park later dropped the case amid a furious public backlash.

And that has since led to an announcement by the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community that they would be carrying out a review of their codes of conduct for car park operators to ensure “genuine” motorists are not unfairly punished.


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