AN “UNFAIR” parking fine has been cancelled after the victim threatened to fight it in court and contacted News Shopper to report on her battle.

Linsey Salter, 34, was given a £50 fine after parking her Audi TT at the Nugent Shopping Park in Sevenoaks Way, Orpington, on March 26.

ParkingEye which monitors the car park, said its cameras showed Mrs Salter had parked there for more than the permitted three hours.

But Mrs Salter says she parked there for two separate periods of around 15 minutes, from 10.48am to 11.05am and 3.55pm to 4.06pm.

Mrs Salter, from Chislehurst, wrote to ParkingEye to explain this and ask staff to check the camera footage to see they had made a mistake.

She also told them she had been helping at a fair at Chelsfield School between her two visits to the shopping park, and the headteacher would verify her car was at the school during this period.

But Parking Eye responded with a letter saying the fine had risen to £80 because she had failed to pay it by a certain date.

Unable to reach ParkingEye by phone, wedding photographer Mrs Salter wrote to say she would fight them in court, and contacted to News Shopper to explain the situation.

News Shopper contacted ParkingEye on Friday (May 20) to ask for a comment for a story on the situation.

On Monday (May 23) ParkingEye contacted us to say Mrs Salter’s fine would be cancelled as a “gesture of goodwill”.

Mrs Salter said: “They have only cancelled the fine, which was obviously unfair, because I fought it and got News Shopper involved.

“It’s good for people to be aware about these goings on because lots of people would just pay the fine without questioning it.”

WATCHDOG

In October last year, ParkingEye was criticised on BBC’s Watchdog website after giving an 86-year-old woman a £40 fine when her car broke down at a supermarket.

Eileen Blackman was fined because she had overstayed the permitted parking time by three hours, despite her car being pictured leaving the car park on a tow truck.

Mrs Blackman’s first appeal was rejected, and she paid the fine. However, her second appeal was successful and ParkingEye refunded her money.

ParkingEye was established in 2002 and is based in Chorley.

It claims it has “rapidly become the number one technical solutions parking operator in the industry, through the quality of its product, service delivery and system integrity”.