We slap customers with £70 fines for parking outside our pub & spy on them with cameras – their fault if they’re caught

PUNTERS at a popular pub are getting whacked with £70 car parking fines - despite more than 20 signs telling them the rules.

The Blue Bell in Yarm, North Yorkshire, ask customers to fill in their registration details to ensure only those who enter the pub use the car park.

However, a number of oblivious customers are still forgetting to do so and are being whacked with the huge fine.

This is despite the owners insisting there are 10-15 warning signs outside, as well as on the doors, tills and toilets inside - so drivers have plenty of warning.

The signs read: "Nobody likes a parking fine. Have you entered your reg today?"

Despite this, the business has faced a backlash with fuming pubgoers taking to Trip Advisor to leave nasty one star reviews.

But the fines are not the pub's fault as the car park is regulated by external company Parking Eye and the pub "don't make a penny" from the fines.

The main car park is behind the building and there is another towards the front doors, but only a few cars filled spaces on Thursday when the Sun visited.

The pub remained quiet with only a few tables occupied by elderly couples eating food and friends cracking on with university work.

Shift manager Scott Briggs said: "The reason we put it in was because the high street started charging for parking.

"Within a matter of days, we were coming in on a morning and three quarters of the car park was filled with workers and shoppers."

Defiant Scott stressed there's only around 40 spaces in the carpark and if nothing was done the whole place would be filled "within an hour".

He added how the pub are doing the best they can to stop their punters leaving with a gaping hole in their wallets.

This includes spying on customers every morning to ensure no-one is caught out by the fines - later cancelling them if needs be.

But in spite of every effort made, Scott and his team are still issuing four or five fines a week despite the rules being in place for four years now.

My partner got home to find his parking ticket for £100!

Parking fine victim

The 28-year-old added: "The number of fines always goes up when the weather is nice because people immediately go sit out at the back to meet their friends.

"It's hard to remind every customer if we're busy but we have put up as many  signs as possible."

He added that nine times out of ten those who get nicked are first time customers.

Scott also said how one star reviews of the pub often disappear after punters get their refund.

But he admitted: "A lot of people think nothing will happen if they ignore the fine."

Earlier this week, one customer said she was shocked to find a fine in the post after visiting the pub.

She claimed: "There was only one sign we could see that said about the apartments next door not to park there. [One day] my partner got home to find his parking ticket for £100!"

But customer Georgia O'Connor, from Middlesbrough, was aware of the system after she was stung at a different car park nearby.

The 21-year-old carer said: "It will be frustrating for customers but I understand the system because parking in Yarm is a nightmare so they were coming here.

"If people don't read the signs and is their first time here then it I can see why they could get stung, but there's enough signs."