A Co Down woman has expressed anger after being hit with a parking fine due to entering the wrong number plate details.
Elaine Elliott, 64, from Katesbridge, was contacted by Smart Parking, a company that uses number plate reading technology after she parked at Bangor Marina last August to meet friends for a walk.
"It was one of those Smart Parking machines that you have to put in your car registration number," Elaine, a retired nurse, told Belfast Live.
"I typed in the number plate and paid for my ticket. When I went back to the car to put the ticket on the windscreen, I realised I had mixed the numbers up."
Elaine took immediate action and corrected the number plate details on the ticket with a pen.
"I thought that if there was a traffic warden around, they'll see I had paid the correct money but just made a mistake and that would be it," she explained.
However two months later, Elaine received a letter through the post from Smart Parking with a £40 fine for not having a ticket.
"It included photos of my car entering and leaving the car park and stated that if I didn't pay within 14 days it would go up to £80."
Elaine decided to appeal the fine since she had a ticket but that was upheld. However she was then baffled to be charged a £20 service fee for the process.
"I didn't want to pay the £20 fee since I had paid for the original ticket," Elaine said.
"Last week I received a letter from a debt recovery agency charging me £150 and stating that if I didn't pay within seven days, they would take me to court with the risk of the fine going up to £235 if I'm unsuccessful."
Elaine feels the action is unfair as she had taken immediate steps to rectify her initial mistake.
"It just seems ridiculous and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been caught out in this scenario. I would have overlooked the whole thing if I had been over my allocated parking time or didn't pay the correct money but that's not the case," she added.
"That particular day in August it was four nurses meeting up in Bangor for a walk and I never thought anymore about until I received the letter back in October. Now there are more letters coming to my door with red writing and threatening me with court - it almost feels like scaremongering."
When contacted, a Smart Parking spokesperson said: "Smart Parking was brought into manage the Banger Marina in order to address parking abuse and to ensure visitors can always find somewhere to park. To do this we operate a state-of-the-art ANPR parking management system that monitors cars entering and exiting.
"There are numerous signs across the car park that clearly set out the terms and conditions of use, one of which is that you must correctly enter your registration number into our payment machines when parking. In the case of Mrs Elliot she did not do this and was issued a charge.
"Smart Parking are proud members of the British Parking Association (BPA) and operate a BPA audited appeals process. Mrs Elliot did appeal, and after an investigation we came to the conclusion that she probably did pay, although the registration number she typed into our machine was substantially different to her own.
"In line with the BPA Code of Conduct guidelines we offered Mrs Elliot the opportunity to pay a reduced one off admin fee of £20. Sadly Mrs Mrs Elliot declined this offer. Mrs Elliot subsequently contacted the independent appeals service POPLA, however they rejected her appeal. We would advise Mrs Elliot to contact us directly to pay the reduced admin fee of £20."
