A Dundee student who was threatened with a £90 parking fine has demanded £120 from the company for the time spent proving her innocence.
Jessica Coxon, 22, was outraged to be sent a letter from Athena Parking, which is responsible for policing Lidl car park, demanding payment when she had been shopping at the store.
In response Jessica sent a copy of her receipt, along with an itemised bill for the time she has spent refuting the claim.
She said: “My initial reaction was shock. I am usually very careful about this sort of thing and I couldn’t understand how this could happen. As a legitimate customer, I was frustrated and disappointed.”
In a letter to Athena Parking, Jessica said: “I have spent 10 minutes reading your demand, 65 minutes searching for my receipt, one telephone call to Lidl, one visit to the car park to check parking conditions and to seek Lidl’s assistance which took 60 minutes, 30 minutes in consultation and another 25 minutes in compiling this response.
“That is a total of three hours and 10 minutes of my time wasted due to your failures and through no fault of my own.
“I value this at £120 and await your cheque for this sum by return. I don’t care if you pay or Lidl pay but you both cannot waste my time like this without paying for it.”
Although she has yet to receive a response from Athena Parking or Lidl, Jessica says she expects them to pay up.
She said: “I am being charged £90 for 18 minutes overstay ie £300 per/hr. To me, £40 per/hr seems an absolute bargain, when including travelling costs and accounting for the disruption.
“If I was at fault they would expect me to pay, as it happens, they are at fault, it was their mistake, why shouldn’t they pay?”
Jessica also contacted her MSP Joe FitzPatrick who condemned the company for wasting taxpayers’ time and money pursuing innocent people.
He said: “It is highly unfortunate that customers’ time is being taken up having to rebut accusations of illegal use of car parks.
“Every time these private parking companies request vehicle keepers’ details from the DVLA there is a cost to the taxpayer, as revealed in The Courier’s expos.”
A spokeswoman for Lidl said: “We apologise if any customer has not been asked for their car registration at the checkout, and we will be speaking with the Dundee store to ensure that all staff are reminded of this procedure.”
At the time of going to press Athena Parking had failed to respond to repeated requests for comment from The Courier.