A furious dad issued a warning to fast-food lovers after receiving a parking fine for visiting the same McDonald's twice in one day.
Spencer Barclay said he first visited McDonald's at 8.25am on Friday, June 24. He bought a coffee, sat in the car park for a few minutes, then left for work.
The 52-year-old then returned to the restaurant just after 5pm on the same day when he collected a takeaway for his child. However, on Saturday, July 2, Spencer says he received a UKPC parking fine, which had been sent out on June 29.
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The cameras had captured images of his Ford Galaxy arriving at the McDonald's Metro Retail Park in Gateshead at 8.25am and leaving at 5.09pm. Spencer, who works as a software consultant, told ChronicleLive : "It's absolutely disgusting, it's just blatantly designed to try and get money out of people - it's extortion! This can clearly happen to anybody.
"I think they have got a camera that photographs you but the camera is a snapshot in time. It photographs you coming in and leaving and that's fine but what if you visit twice? If you visit McDonald's twice in a day you can get £100 fine - that can't be right!
"How many other people have been unfairly treated for going for a happy meal?"
The letter says he will receive a 50% "early pay discount" if he pays the fine within 14 days. After that, he will owe the full £100. Spencer said he has complained to the parking firm about the fine but has not received a response.
He said: "It's absolutely infuriating. They have got the photograph of me in the morning and at night but nothing in between. I want to see the video evidence to show I was in that car park for the whole of the day.
"The first thing I said was 'The information is wrong, I arrived at that time and I left at that time but you've got to be a complete moron if you park in that car park and walk to work where there's a free car park'. I have said to them 'take me to court'.
"My first thought was how can I prove it. We have got to put in a system that's fair - this isn't fair, it's total extortion."
A spokesperson for McDonald’s said: "We are sorry to hear about this customer’s experience. The car park at our Metro Retail Park restaurant is run by a third-party provider and we have made them aware of this issue. We understand that if the customer contacts the provider directly, their case will be considered under the appeals process"
Chronicle Live has contacted UKPC for a comment.
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