OAP left with 'foul taste' and may not return to Hartlepool after parking fine appeal is refused

Dereck Bullock, 74, was served with a £100 penalty after a fishing trip to the town at the end of July.

It caught him by surprise as he had paid £8 for a 24-hour stay Hartlepool Marina car park and left within the allocated time.

Following an initial appeal to the car parking operators, he was told he had not entered the vehicle registration correctly as he had put in twice the letter “O” instead of two zeros and the fine was reduced to £20.

With the help of niece Karen Gilmore, Dereck made another appeal via the independent appeals service for Parking Charge Notices POPLA.

But the Derbyshire man is now “disgusted” after he found out this appeal had been unsuccessful too.

The situation has led to calls to change machines at the car park so that motorists are alerted if they have put in the wrong registration.

Karen, 54, said: "If they can recognise registration numbers coming and leaving without paying, why can’t they recognise that someone’s put a number in but that car isn’t in here? Why can’t it say that’s not the correct number, please check.

"Especially in the circumstances, it’s not as if a zero doesn’t look like an O.”

Northwest Parking Management has insisted the fine was “correctly issued” as “drivers must enter the full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine”.

But Karen has said Dereck should not have been penalised in the first place.

She told the Mail: "You just feel like there’s no human being anywhere that can say ‘Hang on a second, this poor old bloke has actually paid what he should have paid. There’s no way he should be penalised. It’s just ridiculous.

"He paid what he should have paid, so he shouldn’t have been penalised in the first place.”

She added: "I just despair, I think it’s awful. I think it’s ageism."

Dereck has been visiting Hartlepool regularly for his fishing after his wife Jenny passed away five years ago. The grandfather-of-two has always been parking at Navigation Point on his visits to Hartlepool and this has been the first time he has been fined.

The former steel construction worker says he is not panning on paying the fine, which has gone back to £100, for now.

He is also considering going to Whitby for his fishing hobby instead as the fine left him with “foul taste” in his mouth.

“I really think it’s disgusting,” Dereck said.

Commenting on the fine back in Aigust, Northwest Parking Management said: ''The 48 x terms and conditions signs located throughout the car park and around the pay and display ticket machines clearly state 'Drivers must enter the full and correct vehicle registration into the payment machine'.

"If a driver fails to do this then a Parking Charge Notice is issued correctly. The appeal response in this case was in full accordance with the British Parking Associations Code of Practice.”

The company has not responded to the Mail’s request for a comment on the latest appeal.