I was slapped with £140 fines for using a car park I wasn’t even in – it’s appalling

MOTORISTS have vented their fury after being fined for stopping in a car park they never even used.

Robert Bateman, a business owner from Oxford, says he was slapped with two £70 fines because of the camera fiasco.

The unwarranted fines were dished out to motorists who parked at local Oxford business and Cherwell District Council’s car parks.

Instead, they received numerous penalty fines because of a faulty camera used by a nearby Tesco Superstore.

Horizon parking, which oversees the supermarket car park, has been slammed by drivers who need to travel past one of its cameras to stop at the other nearby car parks.

Robert says his £140 fine was “appalling”, and warned that others may mistakenly end up forking out their hard earned cash due to the defective camera.

He told the Oxford Mail: “My biggest concern is that if someone was to believe it was all Tesco’s, wrongly get issued a ticket, they may well unknowing believe that they must pay it and do just that.

“The whole situation is appalling, possibly illegal and causing unnecessary stress to us and possibly many others”.

Tony Gee, another motorist caught out by the system, said he was outraged after feeling “ignored” when he receiving the fine.

A spokesperson for Cherwell District Council said: “We are troubled by the fact that invalid parking fines are being handed out by another enforcement agency at our council’s Curtis Place car park.

“We are disappointed that Tesco and Horizon have so far failed to respond to our attempts to engage with them in this matter and understand the frustration of the residents, visitors and businesses affected.”

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We’re working with Horizon, who operate the parking system at our Kidlington superstore, after reports of incorrect Parking Charge Notices (PCNs).

“A technical fault has been identified and Horizon working to fix this as quick as possible.

“In the meantime, the camera has been disabled. We’re really sorry for any PCNs issued in error and customers can contact Horizon to have these cancelled.”

Horizon has been contacted for comment.