Man's anger over number plate mix-up parking penalty

Richard Lynn said his vehicle was recorded entering the car park - but another with a nearly identical number plate was clocked leaving hours later

A man was wrongly issued with a parking charge after his car was mixed up with another vehicle with a nearly identical number plate.

Richard Lynn said that on 18 March 2024, he paid £1.70 to park for about 30 minutes in Rushton's Yard car park in Ashby, Leicestershire, but later received a demand for £165 from solicitors representing private firm Horizon Parking.

The 53-year-old said photographic evidence, provided by the company, showed his Hyundai entering the car park - but a Kia with an identical number plate bar one letter leaving nine hours later.

Horizon Parking said it wrote to Mr Lynn on 25 July to say the issue was rectified, but he said he had not received confirmation of this.

Horizon Parking provided photos showing Mr Lynn's car (left) with its number plate starting FH6 - and another car with an FP6 registration

Reflecting on the situation, Mr Lynn said: "It's ridiculous. They have clearly different cars with similar but different plates but they just haven't checked properly.

"The result of this is that I received a pretty nasty letter, threatening me with legal action if I didn't pay a fine I should not have been issued with in the first place."

On 25 March 2024, Mr Lynn was sent a letter demanding £85 - £51 if he paid within 14 days.

However, he said he only became aware of the matter in July this year - when he received a letter from solicitors acting on behalf of Horizon Parking demanding £165.

Mr Lynn said he moved house in December 2022 but said he had, in error, not notified the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) of his change of address until some time in "early 2024".

He said his address had subsequently been updated, but believed earlier correspondence could have been sent to his old house.

Horizon Parking said it originally wrote to Mr Lynn, to the address provided by the DVLA, on 25 March 2024, then sent reminder letters on 24 April and 24 May last year.

'I'm pretty angry'

Mr Lynn added: "The fact remains none of those letters should have been sent in the first place.

"There has been no humanity in the way this has been dealt with, either in terms of having a person look at those number plates and spot the mistake - or in the aggressive letter they sent.

"I almost paid them to make them go away, but I pushed back because it was a clear mistake.

"All they had was ANPR [automatic number plate recognition] evidence and they had not spotted the plates - while alike - were different. It beggars belief nobody checked.

"My fear is that lots of errors like this get made but that most people just pay up because they are scared about being dragged to court and having to pay huge legal fees even if they haven't committed the offence.

"I'm pretty angry about the whole thing."

The company that enforces parking rules at Rushton's Yard urged people to appeal if they thought mistakes had been made

A Horizon Parking spokesperson told the BBC the matter had been rectified when it was brought to their attention.

The BBC asked the firm to clarify if that meant the charge had been cancelled, and that potential legal proceedings had been halted, but it declined to say.

It said it had written to Mr Lynn, from Ashby, to inform him, but he said he had not received a letter from the company.

"We do make every effort with our processes to issue correct parking charges," a statement from Horizon Parking said.

"We'll investigate to see how we can improve, but would encourage drivers to appeal in circumstances where the parking charge may be incorrect, to enable the matter to be resolved at an early stage.

"Unfortunately, we didn't receive an appeal and the parking charge therefore proceeded via our recovery methods.

"Once the matter was brought to our attention, it was rectified."