Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
P.T writes: We attended an event at the theatre in Nottingham and parked in the Euro Car Parks facility on Upper Parliament Street.
Instructions on the payment machine said to pay on exit.
At the end of the evening I queued at the machine, typed in my car registration, and was asked to pay £7.20, which I did.
Some days later, however, I received a Parking Charge Notice (PCN), demanding £100.
Tony Hetherington replies: According to the PCN, your car spent three hours and 12 minutes in the car park, but your £7.20 only paid for three hours. The explanation was simple. When the theatre performance ended, lots of people wanted to exit the car park at the same time, resulting in a queue. And this was made worse because of roadworks that restricted the flow of traffic outside the car park.
Confused: Euro Car Parks’ demands did not make any sense
You appealed against the £100 penalty, but Euro Car Parks (ECP) rejected your explanation. However, its rejection letter is nonsense! It says: ‘Signage is clear – drivers must purchase a valid pay and display ticket for the full duration of their stay.’
Absurdly, ECP backed up its demand by sending you a photo of the signage – which does not say that drivers must purchase a valid pay and display ticket.
It says: ‘Payment to be made at the end of your stay. To pay at the pay machine, please enter full vehicle registration via the key pad.’
In short, you obeyed the instructions. You did what you were told to do. You paid the fee that ECP’s machine demanded.
ECP then ignored its own instructions and demanded £100 from you for doing exactly what it told you to do. And when you appealed, it issued what must be an automated reply turning you down.
I say it must be automated because it is hard to believe that any human being would consider your appeal and then believe that the rejection letter and photo you received made an atom of sense.
ECP’s rejection explained that it belongs to POPLA, the Parking on Private Land Appeals organisation used by car park operators. Sneakily, though, using POPLA is a gamble. ECP said it would settle for £60 if you paid up immediately, but if you went to POPLA and lost, then ECP demanded the whole £100.
I am sure lots of drivers pay up to be sure of saving £40, rather than gamble on an industry organisation upholding an appeal, but you decided you would see whether POPLA saw sense where ECP could not. And you also contacted me.
I then contacted ECP. I asked, what was the correct procedure in the circumstances you described?
Should you have left your car blocking the exit queue and gone back to the machine? If so, how could you get the machine to recalculate the fee for the extra minutes?
And, I asked, how many other motorists in the same queue were also penalised that night?
As well as putting all these questions to ECP, I put them to Barry Tucker, the multi-millionaire lawyer who is the boss of the money machine that is ECP. The company’s most recent accounts show a profit for 2023 of over £12 million, so it is no surprise that he owns an £8 million home in north London.
Neither Mr Tucker nor ECP offered any comment, any explanation or any answers. But you suddenly received an email, telling you that ECP ‘has reviewed your appeal and chosen to cancel the parking charge’.
No one can reasonably object to paying a fee to park, but when parking firms set out to fleece the public they should be held to account instead of being paid off like some racketeer. Successive governments have promised a fairer deal for drivers, but none have delivered on their promises. Shame on them.
EE is out of line
J.G writes: I terminated my account with EE in July last year and returned all the kit – the broadband hub, TV box and mini hubs. But I continue to receive bills. Despite numerous calls and emails to the company, which remain unanswered, its latest demand is for £1,085.
Tony Hetherington replies: You cancelled your EE account and not long after that you moved house. On June 3 EE sent an email, saying: ‘You haven’t paid your final broadband bill of £1,085 yet. Please arrange for this to be paid as soon as possible.’ If you still did not pay, there would be late payment charges and you could find yourself listed as a bad payer in credit agency records.
I asked EE to comment, and a day later a senior staff member contacted you. He told you that all charges were being scrapped, and a cheque for £45 was on its way to you to make up for the poor service.
EE explained there had been a problem internally which meant that the charges had been applied by mistake.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
