Man left furious after receiving parking charge in Lincoln despite paying for ticket

A man is fuming at receiving a parking charge notice despite paying for a ticket at a car park in Lincoln.

Keith Webster was left stunned after getting a letter in the post informing him that he was being fined £100 for not paying to park at the NCP car park at St Rumbold’s Street on May 9.

The 70-year-old, from North Somercotes, was left confused after forking out five pound to park for 24 hours - and said that he clearly displayed the ticket in his windscreen.

The pensioner, who left his vehicle in the car park while doing a spot of shopping with his partner Doreen, immediately went into his glove department and dug out the ticket to prove his innocence.

His case has since been dismissed, but the retired voluntary work for the ambulance service is unhappy that he has had to contest it in the first place.

He told Lincolnshire Live: “I am absolutely amazed that in this day and age, modern technology has not found a way to collate details of paid parking tickets to car registrations.

“Instances of automatically issued parking charge notices [PCN] shouldn’t happen.

“It’s unacceptable that companies like NCP have the power to accuse and issue ‘false’ parking charge notices.

“They cause much consternation.”

Mr Webster has questioned the process of how checks into whether people have paid is performed - and fears there may be some who are innocent who may not be able to produce the ticket to prove it.

He said: “It’s unnecessarily time-consuming and unfair to expect people to defend such an accusation who have more than likely disposed of a legitimate but ‘expired’ ticket.”

He added: “It’s so time-consuming and stressful to prove that one has not committed a contravention just because they have a minor technical glitch.”

NCP says that the PCN was handed out after a mistake by Mr Webster.

It has since apologised for the distress and has agreed to cancel the charge.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “We have looked into this case with the reference provided and can see that the customer entered an incorrect registration number.

“We can see that this was a mistake and that he did pay for his parking and we will cancel the PCN with immediate effect.”