Legitimate Euro Automotive Parks ticket holders chased by debt collectors

[ad_1] Drivers have accused a number one automotive park administration firm of issuing “false” parking fines – leaving one mom to defend herself from a number of debt assortment companies despatched by the corporate.

Jane Winder says she was despatched letters from 5 completely different debt assortment companies every asking her to pay £170 after she was accused of not buying a £2.30 parking ticket at a parking lot in Lancashire managed by Euro Automotive Parks.

She is one in every of a number of drivers who've spoken to Guardian Cash about their experiences and described how they have been threatened with courtroom motion, regardless of telling us that they offered proof that that they had paid for his or her parking.

Euro Automotive Parks manages greater than 3,000 automotive parks throughout the UK and Eire for organisations together with supermarkets, hospitals, airports and universities.

The agency lately landed in sizzling water when it was hit with a £473,000 tremendous by the UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority after it failed at hand over data to the regulator.

The corporate makes use of automated quantity plate recognition (ANPR) expertise to determine if individuals have paid, and sends out parking cost notices (PCNs) fining those that seem to not have the precise ticket.

In accordance with Popla, an unbiased appeals service, PCNs issued by Euro Automotive Parks have been the second most-appealed tremendous behind these issued by one other main agency, with 12,000 enchantment submissions for Euro Automotive Parks’ PCNs in 2023, and 15,000 in 2024.

In November 2023 the corporate despatched Winder a £100 parking cost discover and gave her 28 days to pay the debt.

The 51-year-old says she appealed what she thought of to be a “false” discover, sending a financial institution assertion and photograph of her parking ticket to Euro Automotive Parks to show she had paid. Her enchantment was rejected – nevertheless, she was requested to solely pay a £20 administration charge.

Motorists have been pursued for non-payment of a parking cost discover once they had already paid. {Photograph}: Stephen Frost/Alamy Believing she had finished “nothing flawed”, she ignored the request for £20 – till she was bombarded with debt assortment company letters.

The primary arrived in March 2024 when the Preston resident was contacted by an organization known as Debt Restoration Plus. It mentioned she owed £170 and that if she didn't settle the debt, she confronted courtroom motion, and her entry to mortgages, loans, and bank cards may very well be affected.

Winder known as the company to say she had proof of cost and wouldn't be paying the debt, however she says they insisted she pay it.

Over the following 14 months, Winder acquired letters from 5 completely different debt assortment companies asking for the £170 cost.

“I used to be fairly fearful that somebody may come knocking at my door demanding this cash that I didn't owe – it was horrible,” she says.

Preston Mixed Court docket Centre contacted her in June 2025, stating that Euro Automotive Parks had put in a courtroom declare and that she was to attend a listening to over the debt which had by this level risen to £278.

Assured in her defence in opposition to the corporate, she says: “I needed to get up for the little individuals, as a result of these large firms can afford to do that, and the vast majority of individuals will really pay with the specter of courtroom and debt collectors.”

On the final minute she was informed by the courtroom that Euro Automotive Parks had discontinued the debt.

She mentioned: “I took all of it this manner for 2 years and now they've simply known as all of it off … To me, that was an act of contrition.”

Different drivers have reported related tales on the evaluations web site Trustpilot – the place, on the time of writing, 99% of the three,000-plus evaluations of the corporate have been one-star – and the social media website Fb, and to Guardian Cash.

Kelly Haydock was issued with a £100 PCN in November 2023 after parking whereas she did some afternoon procuring in Manchester.

Euro Automotive Parks have been the second-most appealed fines behind these issued by one other main agency. {Photograph}: David Kilpatrick/Alamy Once more, the 55-year-old despatched Euro Automotive Parks a photograph of her parking ticket and financial institution assertion, however had her enchantment rejected. She was overwhelmed by threats from debt collectors.

She says the debt collectors “wouldn't pay attention” to her and demanded cost.

The Wigan resident describes the debt collectors as utilizing “bullying techniques” to attempt to get her to pay the debt, which had elevated to £170 by June 2024.

She acquired a letter from Civil Nationwide Enterprise Centre in Might 2025 stating that Euro Automotive Parks had taken her to courtroom for £277.

However simply earlier than the courtroom date, the foster care employee for Wigan council acquired a name from one of many debt assortment corporations, which agreed to throw out the case if she paid £75.

She says: “I shouldn’t have paid the cash. The job I’ve obtained as a foster carer may be fairly worrying, and I can cope with that alone.

“However having the specter of bailiffs and courts, individuals bullying you and never believing what you say, is actually horrible.

“It triggered me plenty of stress, and I simply paid the cash so they may all go away.”

After one-and-a-half years of coping with Euro Automotive Parks and a number of debt collectors, Haydock says she feels “very bitter” about the entire expertise.

Michal Lucki – whose financial institution assertion and parking ticket have been additionally rejected in an enchantment – says that combating Euro Automotive Parks and a number of debt collectors over the £170 PCN was “mentally draining”.

He says the two-and-a-half yr ordeal, which started in June 2023 when he parked in a Bedfordshire automotive park, had affected his life and put him in a nervous state.

Lucki was lastly free of Euro Automotive Parks and the debt collectors in December 2025 when the courtroom declare for £282 was struck out after the parking firm did not pay the listening to charge to the county courtroom.

Guardian Cash despatched the main points of the circumstances to Euro Automotive Parks and made a number of makes an attempt to acquire a response, nevertheless it didn't reply.