A motorist is furious after receiving a parking fine for inputting the wrong registration plate by mistake.
Carl Wilding, quantity surveyor, from Swanwick, went out for a birthday meal in Nottingham city centre February 11.
The 39-year-old drove his partner's car and used the Ringo app to pay to park on Wollaton Road at around 7:45pm, but mistakenly put in his own car's registration, resulting in a fine.
He said: "My registration details were automatically stored in the app, it was an honest mistake but I did pay £7.40 for the parking ticket.
"When I got back I had parking tickets and it dawned on me what I had done, I wasn't too happy."
Mr Wilding has tried to appeal his £25 parking fine, but this was rejected.
He added: "It's a penalty on me for a simple error, I'd happily accept the fine if I hadn't paid for parking, it feels unjust.
"I can prove I paid for parking and I'm a little annoyed to be honest.
"I've told them I won't be visiting Nottingham as often now."
The driver had 14 days to pay the £25 fine or it would increase, but Mr. Wilding feels motorists are being penalised.
He added: "I'm just really disappointed that they've upheld it, it's unfair and we are being penalised.
"I want make people aware and just be mindful.
"I'm seriously disappointed."
Founding member Hugh Bladon of Alliance of British Driver says the situation is 'absurd'.
He said: "The fact it was a genuine mistake and he put in the wrong registration, anyone with common sense would say okay fair enough and penalise him.
"It's an honest mistake and we all do it, we make mistakes we are human beings.
"It's fairly absurd and it's not fair.
"Motorists are easy targets to grab more money from, it makes life more intolerable and more expensive."
A City Council spokesperson said: “RingGo app users are asked to confirm details before paying for the parking session and if the details entered don’t match the vehicle that’s parked, unfortunately the payment isn’t valid.
"Mr Wilding can choose to pay the penalty charge notice at the reduced rate of £25 up to March 8th, but the option to appeal is still open to him. He can wait for a Notice to Owner to make a formal representation against the PCN and, if it is further upheld at that point, he has the opportunity to take it to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.
“In terms of fines being issued in the evening, Nottingham is a vibrant city with a busy night-time economy and so ensuring that the traffic is freely flowing in and around the city is still necessary after 6pm.”
A spokesperson for RingGo said: “When paying for parking via any mobile app, the driver is responsible for ensuring their vehicle registration number is entered correctly.
"Mistakes happen, so RingGo does ask users to re-confirm details and offers a grace period for drivers to correct their registration details after they’ve paid to park. If the wrong details are entered and the driver doesn’t correct them, they are liable to receive a parking penalty charge notice (PCN).
"If this happens, PCNs will only ever be issued by the parking operator - in this case, Nottingham City’s parking enforcement team. A cashless parking payment provider like RingGo cannot issue or overturn a PCN.
As already seems to be the case in this instance, the driver can reach out to the parking operator to explain the mistake and ask for the fine to be reconsidered – the relevant contact details are always listed on the parking charge notice. However, as RingGo cannot issue PCNs, we can’t support with the appeals process – this needs to be resolved between the driver and the operator."
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