A defiant wife has hit out at what she calls an "absolute joke" £200 parking fine. Barbara Shabir, 42, and her husband Yasir received two notices in the last week - both for £100 - from Premier Park which said they had overstayed parking limits at the Matalan store at Springfield Retail Park, Bulwell.
But Barbara said the times given - 3.52pm to 6.05pm on February 1 and 3.20pm to 9.47pm on February 17 - are when her husband does the school run to pick their children up. Yasir works nights at the Morrisons store within the retail park and has his own parking space that he uses so, Barbara said, he would not have parked in the Matalan car park area anyway.
Barbara, who lives in Hucknall with Yasir and their five kids, said: "We had one last week and one again yesterday. It's where the Morrisons is in Springfield Retail Park.
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"My husband works at Morrisons and he works night shifts, so he goes in at around half-nine, quarter-to-ten, and he's done at six or seven in the morning. But he always parks in their own car park along with his other colleagues.
"The one that we got last week; it's always the same sort of reason. You've overstayed your maximum limit by, you know, three hours, four hours, five hours.
"It's always the same reason. But my husband was on a school run.
"We've got five children but three separate schools that we pick up from. Two are in Basford and the other is in Aspley, so our school run can take a while.
"So the one last week said it was February 1, it was a school day, 15.52. He was on a school run then and apparently he overstayed by two hours and seven minutes - that's why they sent him a fine for £100.
"We can categorically say that it is an absolute lie. And then the one we got yesterday for February 17 says entry time 15.20 and exit time 21.47pm.
"It's an absolute joke. I've appealed both of them.
"We haven't parked in Matalan's car park for more than an hour. We absolutely, categorically haven't parked in Matalan's car park where we think these cameras are.
"Every now and again you do make a mistake - you go in a bus lane by accident and you think 'oh God, I have to pay it' because it is your mistake. We're not paying a single penny, I'm happy to go to court, I'm happy to prove there's nothing we've done wrong.
"He works nights. Like I said, he wasn't even anywhere near the car park during the times that they're saying - he was on school runs. And they take a good hour-and-a-quarter at least.
"It's just a blatant lie and we're not going to take this lying down." A spokesperson for the Alliance of British Drivers said: "Our advice would be to do anything they can do to prove they were not parked there. Documentary evidence would help.
"Some drivers have dash cam footage and evidence which could also help, though we know not every driver has this. There's a lot of this going on with private car parking companies - I don't know if it is increasing or decreasing right now.
"It needs to be done legitimately and sensibly. One needs to accept private car parking companies sometimes take liberties - these penalties are not cheap."
Nottinghamshire Live asked Premier Park for a comment but had not received one at the time of publication.
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