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This is a letter from the mailbox of Sky’s “Money Problem” reporter, Jess Sharp:

I recently received a parking charge (fine?) for allegedly parking at a car park in Newcastle managed by Car Park Management Ltd. I was charged £100 for illegally parking my car. I was advised this would be reduced to £60 if I paid promptly. The demand came with a letter that contained two photographs of my car allegedly arriving and leaving CPM’s car park. The letter had a warning that failure to pay would result in a court case and the ruination of my credit rating (with associated costs at a later date). There were just two problems. The first was that the car in CPM’s photograph was not the same model or make as my vehicle. The second was that the registration number in that same photograph was not the one that applies to my car.  I immediately contacted them to rectify CPM’s incompetence. I received no immediate response. I then wrote a letter of complaint. There was still no response. A couple of weeks later I had an email from CPM that advised my case had been dropped. This correspondence included no apology for the distress that CPM’s harassment had caused. Additionally no reference was made to my reasonable request for compensation. However, the matter was not resolved. Two days later I received by post a final demand for the Newcastle incident (incidentally I live outside Glasgow and have never driven to Tyneside). This time there was a further threat (which I take as demand for money with menaces) of legal action. A simple apology would have helped but high and mighty CPM can’t even do that.
Ian Graham

Hi Ian. Thank you for getting in touch with your problem – we get a lot like yours involving parking issues. 

It was a good job that you checked the photo evidence provided to you by CPM. There are some people who, in a panic, wouldn’t have paid close enough attention. 

Of course, the first thing to do, as you did, is to get in contact with the company and tell them it wasn’t your vehicle. 

If it tries to dispute this, you can ask the DVLA for proof you are not the registered keeper. 

I got in touch with CPM, pointing out it clearly wasn’t your vehicle, and it has cancelled your parking charge. 

In an email sent to you after our intervention, a representative told you the error was caused by a single-digit discrepancy in the ANPR camera system that was missed in manual quality checks. 

“We absolutely appreciate that the parking charge should not have been issued in the first instance, and we sincerely regret any distress the error has caused,” the email said. 

The company has since told us it has reviewed this process to make sure it handles similar cases correctly in the future. 

“We have reviewed this situation and cancelled the parking charge. We have spoken to Mr Graham directly to apologise, and we are sorry for the distress it caused him,” a spokesperson said. 

“Having looked at the evidence, the charge was issued in error. We have confirmed to him that nothing is owed and that the matter is now fully closed.” 

I got back in touch with you after CPM replied and you thanked us for our intervention, saying you “suspect a recent call from their quality assurance team came as a consequence”. 

Unfortunately, you still felt that you didn’t get a sincere apology, but hopefully our work to get the charge removed has helped.