A carer has won her £100 car parking ticket battle she has branded "disgusting", after being refused to overturn it the first time round.
Debra Rulach, from Bath, was visiting an elderly dementia patient at an apartment complex when she parked her vehicle at a car park nearby.
When she arrived at the Palladian complex on 7 October, she recalls sensing that not everything was fine at the flats, report Somerset Live.
She quickly parked her car in the Victoria Bridge Square - not even pausing to lock it, she says - and ran up to her patient's block, where she found him in a lot of distress.
After dealing with the matter, by the time Ms Rulach returned to her car, unbeknownst to her, it had been caught on the CCTV cameras for parking without a permit.
She went on to explain that the situation she was dealing with was important, saying: "Normally I get my client's parking permit and put it on the car as soon as I arrive. However, when I got there that evening, I saw that the lights in his flat weren't on.
"He's a dementia sufferer in his 80s so I was very concerned when I saw that. I parked up and didn't even lock my car before going inside. When I got to his flat, he told me he had somehow managed to turn his electrics off and he was obviously very distressed.
"My call usually takes no more than a half-hour, but that day it took a bit longer because I had to calm him down and get the lights back on. I arrived at 7.10pm and the photograph of my car was taken at 7.53pm, just before I came back out."
Then, shortly after her visit, Ms Rulach received a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) from Premier Park.
It informed her that she needed to pay a £60 fine for parking without a permit.
She went on to appeal the notice, but said that the company refused to overturn it.
Ms Rulach added: "I wouldn't have paid it, because that would be the same as admitting I was in the wrong, and I wasn't. There were other vehicles there, unloading shopping, but they singled me out and I was prepared to fight them in court."
However, before it came to that, Debra appealed to the parking ombudsman, POPLA, for help.
They helped to review her case, and this eventually saw her fine overturned.
The carer said: "I am obviously very pleased that my appeal succeeded but I don't want this to happen to anyone else. The lighting down there is not very good so you can barely see the signs at night and it is disgusting the way they are trying to con people."
Speaking about the case, a Ombudsman Services spokesperson said: “We’re pleased that the POPLA process worked for Ms Rulach and resulted in the cancellation of her parking charge.”
The Mirror has approached Premier Park for comment on Ms Rulach's case.
