Increased parking fine and threat of Debt Recovery Action - due to Euro Car Parks own payment errors

Goodform

Good morning, I would be grateful if someone could advise on the following circumstances:

My wife has a NHS lease car for her work as a community nurse. I am a named driver on the vehicle and insurance. We received via the lease company a parking fine from Euro Car parks after I over-stayed a free parking period at a Sainsbury's retail car park. The date of contravention was 7th August 2024. After receiving the parking notice from the lease company we paid the fine of £50.15 on the 2nd September 2024. However on 12th November 2024 we discovered from our Barclaycard credit card statements that the payment had been taken twice in error by Euro Car Parks' automated telephone system or website (i.e. two payments of £50.15 taken on the same day within 4 seconds of each other)

I contacted Barclaycard to query the error who advised that duplicate payments are normally expected to be refunded by the merchant within two weeks of the original transaction date. Therefore as more than two months had passed; without any refund; Barclaycard processed the refund themselves and this was received by us on the 14th November 2024.

However, on the 10th December 2024 Euro Car Parks refunded a further £50.15 which Barclaycard has since stated was unnecessary as the duplicate transaction had already been resolved. We were not formally informed of the second refund and did not notice it on our statements at the time, so happily assumed the fine had been paid in full and the matter resolved.

Fast forward 18 months to 3rd March 2026, we received a "Final Notification Letter" from Euro Car Parks (via the leasing company) which was dated 26th February 2026 claiming that the original fine from 2024 was unpaid and now demanding £135.00

We made contact with Euro Car Parks several times to dispute this notice while still offering to repay the original £50.15 only. We also made a formal complaint after they gave us a deadline of 27/03/26 to pay the increased fine and then passed the matter to a Debt Recovery Company. Their response was to claim we had signed a declaration to state that we had not authorised both payments of £50.15 (from 02/09/24) and so the amount of £135.00 was now due to them and that all communication should now be with the debt recovery company. There was clearly no meaningful investigation into our complaint or the facts we raised. We pointed out that we did not sign any declaration, but simply made one phone call to Barclaycard to question the duplicate payments and that the unpaid fine was due to their own errors.

The situation has been made even more difficult by Euro Car Parks who repeatedly informed us that we should contact Debt Recovery Plus, which we did multiple times to find out what was happening with our case, but on each occasion they advised us that they had no record of our details. Eventually after a month, one of Debt Recovery Plus' agents consulted a database and informed us that the case had in fact been passed to a different debt recovery firm, namely; DCBL. I have since rang them twice only to be told they do not have the case yet either, but to wait and see if a letter eventually arrives from them.

The whole experience has been very unprofessional and unsatisfactory. We can not understand why this matter cannot be resolved fairly and proportionately by simply allowing us to pay the original fine amount, which we have in fact already paid once but was refunded in error by Euro Car Parks.

So I am now in a position where I could be facing court procedures over a fine which we actually paid on time but; due to Euro Car Parks own technical or administrative errors (and failure to check their own accounts); was refunded.

Has anyone else had any experience of this who could advise on how we might proceed?

Coupon-mad

You never had a fine and should NEVER have paid the invoice, so thank your lucky stars it was refunded!

NEVER pay these scam PCNs all the time the industry remains an unregulated 'Wild West' bunch of cowboys, "extorting money from motorists" (MHCLG Minister's phrase in 2022).

There was no fine.

YOU WANT THE CLAIM FORM.

Bring it on!

My wife has a NHS lease car for her work as a community nurse. I am a named driver on the vehicle and insurance. We received via the lease company a parking fine from Euro Car parks after I over-stayed a free parking period at a Sainsbury's

You could not ask for an easier one to defend (by adapting the Template Defence) and later on, DCB Legal will discontinue it at no cost whatsoever to you.

Who is the recipient of these letters? You or your wife?

So easy! No hearing. No cost, no CCJ risked.

It was madness to pay a private parking charge when you lease/hire the vehicle. Your wife could have easily won this at POPLA last year, simply by denying hirer liability and saying she wasn't driving. Would have been a cinch.

But in fact, parking Claim defences are even simpler. A complete doddle to see off.

Have you not seen the 840+ examples in the DCB Legal Discontinuances thread by @Umkomaas ?

😄

Car1980

The whole experience has been very unprofessional and unsatisfactory.

The Pope is notoriously religious and bears do their business amongst the trees 😉