A woman claims she was wrongly accused of using a pub's car park for more than eight hours despite only using it twice to drop off her grandchildren.
Sue Bennet, 74, says she appealed the £60 fine on three separate occasions, but they were all rejected. Because of this, she feared she would be taken to court, although the fine will now reportedly be "cancelled".
She had parked her car at The Tollemache Arms in Alpraham, Cheshire, at 8.20am on August 15 so she could drop of her two grandchildren with her daughter for the day. Mrs Bennet then left the car park - which she says has a maximum stay of two hours - before returning home approximately 10 minutes later, Cheshire Live reports.
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After receiving a fine from Smart Parking Ltd, which operates the car park, she was shown two images of her car arriving at 8.20am and departing at 4.56pm. She added that she has receipts showing that she paid for shopping and fuel at Sainsbury's in Chester later that day as well as a video on her phone of both her grandchildren eating breakfast plus text messages between her and her daughter which confirm the arrangement of dropping the kids off.
"Some people have said 'why don't you just pay it' - I don't want to pay out money I don't have," Mrs Bennet said. "I'm a 74-year-old grandmother, I've never had a conviction in my life. This is now nothing to do with the fine but to uphold the principle of honesty."
She added: "I appealed to Smart Parking explaining why I was there, which was to meet my daughter who was passing my grandchildren, aged 5 and 6, over to me in a safe area along the busy A51 to look after for the day, and then returning to the car park passing them back to their father on his way home from work at around 5pm.
"In neither instance was I there for more than 10 minutes. This appeal was rejected on the basis that their cameras showed me arriving at 8.20am and leaving at 16.56pm but not showing me leaving in between. I then appealed to POPLA who is an independent adjudication service.
"My second appeal was rejected on the same basis, the camera only showed two photos. I appealed for the third time through POPLA, and this has just been rejected. This I believe is the last time I can appeal. I'm not quite sure what happens now, I presume they will take me to court if I don’t pay.
"This is now nothing to do with the fine but to uphold the principle of honesty. Each rejection was based on the fact their camera did not show me leaving in the morning, nor arriving in the afternoon."
She continued: "According to Smart Parking they claim every accessible entry and exit point to this car park is managed by either an entry or exit camera which takes an infrared image of the vehicle registration as it passes by. Also when I spoke to the management of the Tollemache Arms a few days after this PCN was issued, he stated that the car park is covered 24 hours by these cameras.
"The following is one of POPLA’S comments: 'Independent research has found that ANPR technology is generally reliable. I appreciate that there is the possibility for inaccuracies'. These cameras are not 100% accurate, whereas my words are.
"My bank statement for the day in question actually shows I had been in Sainsbury's shopping and paying for that at 9.56am, and then on to Sainsbury’s petrol station paying for fuel at 10.08am on the day in question filling up my car."
A Smart Parking spokesperson said: "Smart Parking have been employed to manage the car park at the Tollemache Arms in order to address significant parking abuse and to insure genuine customers of the premises can always find somewhere to park.
"In regard to the site itself, nefarious activity by some individuals have seen the cameras tampered with, balloons put in place to cover the cameras and vehicles situated so that incorrect images are taken. As such, we continue to monitor the site closely.
"We would remind all motorists to always closely check the terms and conditions of use before driving onto private land and parking. However, in this particular case and following the detailed investigation of all available information, this charge was cancelled."
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