Woman fined for overpaying at notorious Worthing car park

On Sunday, January 5, Sally Edmonds parked at the Montague Quarter car park in Liverpool Gardens, Worthing, for 39 minutes – but due to a fault with the machine, she paid £13.

According to her husband Martin, CP Plus, which runs the car park, refunded the excess money – but has issued them a £20 parking fine notice instead.

He said: “We are just very disappointed for being fined for making an overpayment. It is as simple as that.

“Even though they have accepted there was an overpayment and refunded it, they are still trying to punish us.

“I’m considering instructing solicitors. I would prefer to pay £200 to solicitors than £20 to them.”

Martin, from Lancing, said that his wife was unable to select her vehicle at the machine, and after trying to input the details manually she was charged £13 – a figure not even listed on the car park signs.

The following day, Sally contacted CP Plus to report the fault, and emailed them evidence – but while the refund was being processed, the parking fine was issued on January 13. On January 16 she provided evidence she had paid, but Martin said they had still had no response.

On November 7, Lauretta Turner from Barker Road, Storrington, said she paid for her parking but was not given a receipt due to a fault with the machine.

The 27-year-old did not think anything more of it, until she was sent a parking fine a week later.

The team leader at TK Maxx in the Montague Quarter said she had sent two letters of appeal by recorded delivery but heard nothing back from CP Plus.

Despite this, she has been sent several letters from the parking management firm telling her to pay the £90 fine.

The final letter threatened to take her to court – but Lauretta said she would not stand down.

She said: “I’m just frustrated. I’m not going to pay it obviously.

“They could do a lie detector test on me for all I care; I haven’t done anything wrong.”

She added: “I have had tonsilitis and you can get that from stress. I know it’s the time of year and things are going around, but getting letters saying ‘you have to go to court’ doesn’t help.”

She added that the parking charge reference numbers also kept changing on their correspondence with her, adding to the confusion.

Spurred on by her situation, Lauretta took to Facebook to ask if anyone else had been affected – and said she was shocked by the amount of people who had.

“It’s not just me,” she said.

A CP Plus spokesman said: “We take every challenge on its merit and if there is a fault with any machines, we look to resolve the fault and related parking charge notices as quickly as possible.”

Contrary to what her husband said, the spokesman claimed that Mrs Edmonds’ complaint had been resolved, as they would be taking the £13 payment instead of the £20 parking charge.

They were still looking into Lauretta’s claim and aimed to resolve it as soon as possible, he added.