Pensioner fined almost £200 over £1 parking ticket – despite machine being broken
A 75-year-old pensioner is refusing to pay a £170 parking fine after being unable to purchase a £1 ticket from a broken machine in east London.
Berkeley Bathurst visited a car park in Hornchurch to make a quick trip to the Post Office, only to find the parking meter displaying an error message.
The retired gardener, who didn’t have his mobile phone with him to use alternative payment methods, spent just 10 minutes running his errand.
The great-grandfather has now been threatened with legal action after the initial £100 fine was escalated by a debt collection agency.
Bathurst parked his car at Elm Park car park on October 16 when he encountered the faulty machine.
“How could I pay if the machine wasn’t working?” he said, explaining that the meter displayed a ‘Not in use’ error message.
Without his mobile phone to access alternative payment options, he proceeded with his brief Post Office visit.
“I tried to appeal but I was told it was rejected. I’m not paying it because I’m not going to be ripped off,” the 79-year-old said.
“This has caused me so much stress because that’s a flipping lot of money. Where am I going to get £170?” he added.
After refusing to pay the initial fine, Bathurst’s case was escalated to debt collection agency ZZPS.
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The agency added a £70 administration fee and threatened legal action at the county court if he failed to pay.
The pensioner received the increased £170 fine just three days before Christmas, causing additional stress during the holiday period.
“We had the worry of that all Christmas; worrying they would send bailiffs to our door,” Bathurst said.
The letter also warned of “additional charges” if the increased fine remained unpaid.
Bathurst remains defiant about his refusal to pay the fine, stating: “We will fight it tooth and nail, until the end.”
He exclaimed: “It was a pound, that’s all it was. It’s all a con, in my opinion. They’re like the mafia: ‘Pay up, or else’.
“They’re gangsters, ripping people off and frightening the hell out of people like us. We will not pay a penny.”
His wife Angela, 73, condemned the actions of One Parking Solution as “tyrannical” given the small amount of the original parking fee.
“It seems to me that money is these parking people’s God and that’s it, they don’t care,” she said. “He was barely there for 10 minutes.”
The couple, who have lived in Hornchurch for three decades, are now warning other shoppers about potential issues at the car park.
They hope their experience will help others avoid similar fines when using the facility.
GB News has approached One Parking Solution for comment.