A driver has slammed a car park for fining him £60 after he spent eight minutes trying without success to pay to park there, then left.
Engineer Ian Dykes parked his vehicle at the East Street Car Park in Nottingham so he could carry out a job for his employers, Dell, at a nearby cinema.
The 63-year-old rang the number provided by the car park to pay for his stay, but was rejected four times while trying to put in his car registration number. He then gave up and parked elsewhere, Nottingham Live reports.
But much to his surprise, a week later he was hit with a £60 fine for staying the eight minutes without paying.
Ian appealed against the fine, but it was rejected. He has slammed the parking firm, called Euro Car Parks, adding that the fine is half a day's wage for him.
He explained: "I work for Dell as an engineer and I was heading for the NG1 to park. There's a cinema by the multi-storey car park and I had to go and do a job there to fix a machine.
"And there was a car park just close by and I used the number to ring to pay for the parking. So I rang it and put my registration number in, then they asked for it again so I put it in again - it asked my about four times for the number.
"It wouldn't accept payment so within the eight minutes I was there I thought it's pointless leaving it here, I'll go and park at the multi-storey car park, which I did. And then a week later I got a fine for £60 fine for trying to pay for parking!
"I appealed against it, showed them the ticket from the multi-storey car park with the difference of time which was eight minutes and they rejected it. They said you'll have to pay £60 which I think is disgusting to be honest.
"And everywhere you go in NG1 [a Nottingham city centre] there's a problem with the parking - it's a nightmare trying to get close to the businesses where you're called to work. But I don't get it back, you see, I lose it out of my daily pay. That £60 comes out of my daily pay so that's like half my pay for the day.
They said that the machine was working fine and it just wasn't, it was just looping all the time. It was just a nightmare. There was only enough space for not even 20 cars and there was just one space in there so I thought I'd park there because it was not even five minutes away from where I needed to be.
"I work in the Nottingham area five days a week for Dell, and I don't know the area very well because I've only lived here for five years, but if someone was to come into the city to do some shopping in the city centre, it's a nightmare to park."
Euro Car Parks have been approached for comment.
