Driver bills hospital parking firm for wasting his time

A motorist who won a battle with a parking firm is billing the company for his wasted time.

Micky Blair was furious when he was fined while dropping his elderly aunt off at Macclesfield Hospital in February, the Macclesfield Express reports.

The 65-year-old challenged ParkingEye, the firm paid by East Cheshire NHS Trust to manage hospital parking, and the fine was overruled by POPLA – the independent appeals service for parking tickets.

Now Mr Blair, of Old Hall Street, Macclesfield, has turned the tables and ‘billed’ the company for his ‘out of pocket expenses’.

In a letter, the granddad of seven claims for the cost of paper, envelopes and stamps, printing and fuel costs from when he revisited the hospital car park to prove his innocence.

He has also invoiced the firm for three hours of his time at the rate of £6.50 per hour, the national minimum wage.

In the strongly-worded letter, My Blair demands his bill for £27.23 is paid by August 19 or he will take the matter to the county court, meaning the firm will incur more charges.

He said: “As a result of your original wrongful issuing of the said parking fine and the associated threats of additional charges, court actions, etc, I had no option other than to challenge yourselves that I was totally innocent of any wrongdoing and that in fact yourselves had acted wrongfully.

“As a result of defending myself I incurred unnecessary cost in addition to endless nights of non sleep and constant worry.

“I think you will find that unlike yourselves whose charges are disgustingly, immorally astronomical compared to the alleged offence, I am quite reasonable in that I have only charged you for my time at the National Minimum Wage hourly rate of £6.50 per hour and have made no charge for loss of sleep and anxiety caused.”

ParkingEye’s original fine claimed Mr Blair was in the drop-off zone four minutes longer than the 30-minute limit.

The appeal was granted because the signs was unclear the time of the alleged infraction.

Mr Blair said he was taking a stand again ParkingEye because of the tone of their letters.

He said: “They put you in a corner by only allowing you the discounted rate of the fine if you don’t challenge it.

“It’s unfair. You have to defend yourself again this sort of behaviour.”

A spokesperson from ParkingEye said: “ParkingEye operates an audited appeals process and encourages people to appeal if they feel there are mitigating circumstances. If a motorist disagrees with our decision they have the option to appeal to the independent appeals service (POPLA). In this specific case POPLA has upheld the motorist’s appeal and ParkingEye has cancelled his parking charge. ParkingEye does not accept invoices of this nature.”