'I was fined 23 times for using my staff car park'

Mary Bates said it had been a nightmare trying to get her parking fines cancelled

A nurse received 23 fines for parking at the hospital where she works, despite paying monthly for a staff permit.

Mary Bates, from Rugby in Warwickshire, started receiving the multiple fines in June after new parking cameras were updated at Warwick Hospital.

"I got five parking fines through the post but after another five or six days I got another seven parking fines and in total at the moment we're standing at 23 parking fines. They are £85 each," she said.

Smart Parking, the firm that runs the car park, said the fines had been issued in error and had since been cancelled.

Staff at Warwick Hospital can pay for parking permits, which are deducted from their monthly wage and calculated based on their pay grade.

Ms Bates has been working at the hospital since 2019 and had no issues with the car park until now.

In a statement, South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are aware of the issue raised in relation to parking fines issued to a member of our staff.

"Our dedicated car parking team has been working with the individual and has investigated the matter thoroughly. Appropriate action is being taken to resolve it."

"I emailed Smart Parking to say, look, I've got multiple, multiple parking fines, please can you sort this out? I do pay monthly and this is my car registration," Ms Bates told the BBC.

"They emailed me back a generic email saying that, sorry, none of the parking fines can be discussed individually, so you will have to appeal for each one separately. So 23 appeals later, I've only got one cancelled so far.

"It's more than a monthly wage of bills currently that's stacked up and it's getting towards the deadline so I'm hoping I don't have to go to court. I have a job where I've got to put people back together literally every day and then I have to come back to this."

In a statement, Smart Parking said: "Ms Bates is registered on the site and used the car park without issue on a number of occasions.

"We have recently changed some of technology at the site, and unfortunately this didn't pick up that Ms Bates had already paid and so we issued some charges in error. We have now rectified the error in Ms Bates case and have written to her confirming all charges sent in error have been cancelled."