Callander motorist hit with fine in Stirling car park - despite buying ticket

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A driver has been locked in a five-month dispute after he was fined for stopping in a Stirling car park - despite buying a ticket.

Ian McNaught, from Callander, parked in the Rainbow Slides car park in the city centre on July 9 this year while heading to a barber’s appointment.

Before leaving the car park, Mr McNaught paid the charge at one of the parking machines on site - but failed to register his number plate with the technology.

Despite that, the machine proceeded to process Mr McNaught’s payment of £2.70 and gave him a ticket, leaving him none the wiser over his requirement to input the number plate.

Mr McNaught told the Observer: “I’ve been going to my barbers in Viewforth Place for years but couldn’t get parked down there so went into Rainbow Slides in a bit of a rush.

“I put my card in and it printed off my ticket but they’ve now said that I’ve showed them no evidence of this.

“Their machine has allowed me to pay without proper procedure and because I was in a rush, I didn’t think anything more of it, but there should be a block of me being able to make that payment until I put my plate in.”

A few weeks later, he was contacted by the operators of the car park, Excel Parking Services Limited, who informed him he would need to pay a fine for not having paid for his 37-minute stay.

Mr McNaught appealed the fine, showing evidence of the money having been taken out of his account and claimed the company’s cameras at the site would be able to see his vehicle entering and leaving the car park.

However, his appeal was turned down and Mr McNaught recently received a letter from a law firm on November 22, requiring him now to pay the sum of £160 - made up of a parking fine of £100 and a “debt recovery fee” of a further £60.

In the letter, Mr McNaught is threatened with facing “sheriff court proceedings” if the payment isn’t paid within a week of the letter being received - leaving the 54-year-old worried about his next step to take.

“They won’t accept anything that isn’t a VAT receipt as evidence but that’s not something I have and they said I should have read the signs on the way into the car park”, Mr McNaught continued.

“You would simply pay the fine and accept you were in the wrong if you were trying to pull a fast one and I would have no issues with that if I had parked there and simply hadn’t paid but I did so for the time I was there.

“They are just trying to get that money and I feel like any lawyer looking at the evidence I have would think that was a fine they couldn’t really pursue.

“It seems a little like ambulance chasing to me to be pushing people with threatening letters.”

The Observer contacted Excel Parking Services Limited for a response to Ian’s claims.

They did not provide a response at the time of going to press.

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