A motorist is warning others against parking ‘scam’ after being fined despite paying for the ticket. Stuart Flynn visited Harvey Towans Beach on December 15 last year with a group of friends
Everyone was scrambling to download the Sippi parking app, which is the only way you can pay at Hayle Beach as the machine doesn’t accept cash. All three were furious, calling the car park a total “scam”. His friend, Mike Stewart, received a fine notice even though he managed to use the app and pay for his stay.
Mr Flynn, from Taunton, said the same thing happened to him and he too was fined £100 about 95 days after his visit to Cornwall. The 55-year-old office worker said the PCN made absolutely no sense as he had paid £3.90 to park and a 20p administration fee which allowed him to stay for three hours according to the sign on Harvey Towans.
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Despite staying for just over two hours and having a Sippi payment receipt for it, he was still “fined”. Mr Flynn said that when he appealed against PCN, CPM rejected his appeal outright and threatened him with legal action if he did not pay up quickly.
CornwallLive said: “It was a struggle to download the app due to poor mobile signal, my partner eventually managed to download and pay via the Sippi app. Now 95 days after parking I’ve been issued a PCN for £100 that they didn’t pay in full.
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“We paid £4.10 (£3.90 for general parking plus £0.20 for convenience) which is collected automatically via an app over which we have no control. I noticed from the signage at the time that this payment was up to three hours parking.According to the app we stayed two hours and seven minutes.
“PCN says we stayed for two hours and 33 minutes, which is still within three hours of parking for the tariff the app uses. So there is nothing more to pay and the car park and UK Parking Authority have suffered no loss.”
The letter Mr Flynn received said the PCN’s reason was “failure to pay for parking”. Mr Flynn said he appealed but was immediately dismissed and has now received the latest red notice, dated May 10, saying his case will be referred to a debt collector unless he coughs up £100.
He added: “I sent a further letter of appeal to the PO Box address at PCN and received a letter on 23rd May advising that their decision to reject my appeal was unchanged. The letter stated that any further correspondence from me would not be responded to and I would now he was supposed to pay £100 by 6th june and if i don’t pay they will try to get the money back through their debt collection service.
“The full amount for parking was paid on the day via their app but UK Car Park Management on behalf of Harvey Towans Car Park refuse to accept this and refuse to correspond further.”
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He added: “I don’t see how this is right and these continued intimidating letters when I have paid the full amount are certainly inappropriate. I don’t see how UK Car Park Management can request driver information from the DVLA when there is no illegal activity.” took place.
“Certainly the car park management is responsible for making sure its own systems are properly calibrated and that any electronic payments and digital content is likely to work properly in the area. I would hate to see this situation happen to anyone else. I suspect many people have paid full , yet still get PCN and just pay to make the intimidation go away, but why should they?
“Unfortunately, I was not aware of the problems associated with this car park and its management when I parked.
Indeed, Mr. Flynn and his friend, Mr. Stewart, are not the only ones caught on Harvey Towans. In October, surfer Sami Raif used the device, but he was also fined because the machine does not accept cash or phone payments, although he later paid online.
CPM has been approached for comment.