Pensioner issued fine after visiting local supermarket…

Pensioner issued fine after visiting local supermarket twice in one day

A pensioner was left angry and upset as he received a fine after visiting his local supermarket twice in one day.

Rob Clark, 66, made the journey on the morning of Friday, September 30. He left the supermarket in his car and returned later that afternoon.

However, Rob was surprised to receive a fine in the post days after the event which claimed that he had been parked in the car park for nearly six hours.

Rob's stepson, Ryan Dales, said he felt it was unfair when his stepdad was fined amid the cost of living crisis, and that it left him "really angry" and "really upset".

Parkingeye, the company that operates the car park at the Asda supermarket, has now cancelled the parking charge of £70 "as a gesture of goodwill" after being contacted by Grimsby Live, the local news site in the area where Rob lives.

Ryan said: "He went to the store in the morning, left again and then went back in the afternoon. A few days later he got this fine through the door saying he'd been there all day. He looked at it and said, 'What? I haven't parked anywhere I shouldn't have'. Then when he read into it more, he saw it said he'd been parked in the Asda Grimsby car park for five hours and 58 minutes."

He said Rob has bank statements and receipts to prove that he attended the supermarket twice in one day - but when he sent these off, he was told he would still be required to pay the fine.

He added: "He's got bank statements to prove that he attended the shop twice that day, and the CCTV in that area would be able to prove that he left and returned to the store. On the fine letter, there's a threatening message which says the £70 parking fine would be reduced to £40 if it's paid by a certain time.

"A lot of people would say, 'I'll just pay the fine and forget about it', but it's not fair when people are just returning to a store twice. I'm sure if Asda knew what was going on then they wouldn't be too happy about it, because it means people who shop at the store can't return more than once to do their shopping.

Ryan said Rob was initially so upset that he was considering paying the discounted £40 fine. "It seems to me as if it's a threat saying, 'If you want it cheaper, pay it now and don't think about it', so I had to advise him otherwise and told him to challenge it because he didn't even park there all day," he said.

"It angers me. The company clearly has cameras on either side as you're arriving into the car park and leaving it, so they shouldn't be doing this to people at all. The way the country is at the minute, it's already scary enough - and this is just making things even worse."

Parkingeye, the company who operate the car park at Asda Grimsby, has now cancelled the parking charge "as a gesture of goodwill". A spokesperson for the company said: “The car park at Asda Grimsby has a number of prominent and highly-visible signs that give motorists clear guidance on how to use the car park responsibly, of which the vast majority of them do.

“It appears that this particular motorist stayed beyond the allocated three hour free period, which resulted in them receiving a parking charge notice.

“There is no record of the motorist appealing the parking charge with Parkingeye, however, we have reviewed the case and the charge has been cancelled as a gesture of goodwill.

“Parkingeye are proud members of the British Parking Association (BPA) and strictly follows its guides. As part of this we operate the BPA audited appeals process, which motorists can use to appeal their parking charge. If anyone has mitigating circumstances then we would encourage them to contact us."

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