A holidaymaker says he will never go back to a popular destination after being fined in what he's described as a car parking 'scam'. Paul Spooner paid for a space by the beach at Sennen Cove in Cornwall but was still issued with a penalty.
Paul, who works for the Government, paid £9 to park for 24 hours or overnight at just after 2.10pm on April 7. The transaction was recorded on his bank statement and the machine took his car registration number - but it didn't issue a ticket.
As other vehicles weren't displaying tickets, Paul thought he was safe to leave his car. However, he later received a £100 fine.
When he tried to phone car parking operator Armtrac Security to appeal the fine, he couldn't get through for two days, CornwallLive reports. He also emailed them armed with evidence of his payment for his stay and did not receive any reply until 21 days had passed, at which point Armtrac told him his appeal had not been made within the 21-day window.
"They wouldn't even accept my proof of payment. They were rude on the phone and put the phone down on me twice," said Paul, 49, who lives in Lincolnshire and went to Cornwall with his wife Christine for a family reunion. "When I managed to get hold of them again, it was the same woman I had had before and she even denied ever speaking to me. I think the way these people operate is scandalous. It feels like a total scam."
Paul said the email address used by Armtrac did not correspond to the one on their website. In addition, he said letter he received about his appeal being turned down had information and further details covered with corrector fluid as well as information about a link car park users should use which led nowhere and didn't work.
Armtrac are part of the International Parking Community (IPC) but are not members of the British Parking Association, which means motorists cannot take the matter to POPLA if the company rejects an appeal. POPLA is an independent appeals service for parking fines issued on private land.
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Paul said: "It very much feels like the appeal system is design to make you pay £100 and not appeal. I don't know what they expected me to do. Pay again at another machine in the hope it would issue a ticket.
"I've come to Cornwall many times. But it's the last time we'll ever visit Sennen Cove. I think the shops in the village need to realise that the way the car park operates will impact their trade negatively if people don't come any more."
Last August the same company was criticised for issuing penalties to people who didn't enter their vehicle's full registration number at a machine operating in another car park in Sennen Cove. The machine asked people to only enter the last three digits.
CornwallLive approached Armtrac for comment on Mr Spooner's case.
