I was slapped with a £100 parking fine even though I paid for my ticket – it’s so unfair & things only got worse

A DRIVER has claimed he was slapped with a £100 parking fine despite actually paying for a permit.

The furious motorist slammed the charge as a "scam" and alleged that he wasn't the only person who had been stung.

Stuart Flynn insists that he used the required parking app to pay for his stay while visiting a beach in Hayle, Cornwall.

He claims he paid for three hours of parking, but was still hit with a penalty charge notice (PCN) over three months later.

Mr Flyn, 55, told : "It was a struggle to download the app due to poor mobile signal, my partner eventually managed to download [it] and pay.

"Now 95 days after parking I have been issued with a PCN for £100, saying I have not paid in full.

"According to the app we stayed for two hours and seven minutes.

"The PCN says we stayed for two hours and 33 minutes which is still inside the three hours parking for the tariff taken by the app."

The letter accompanying the fine states that it was due to a "failure to pay for parking".

But Mr Flynn claims that even when he appealed the decision to UK Car Park Management, the company which issued the fine, and showed them the receipt from the app, the firm continued to pursue the charge.

CPM denied the appeal and even threatened him with legal action to extract the charge, he added.

He now claims that CPM is refusing to discuss the matter further and has said it will initiate debt recovery proceedings if he does not pay by June 6.

Mr Flynn went on: "I cannot see how this is right and these continuing letters of intimidation, when I have paid the full amount, are surely inappropriate.

"UK Car Park Management is surely responsible for ensuring its own systems are calibrated correctly and any electronic payment and digital content is likely to work correctly in the area.

"I suspect many people have paid in full yet still receive a PCN and just pay to make the intimidation go away but why should they?"

Indeed, Mr Flynn further alleged that his friend, Mike Stewart, had been issued a similar PCN on the same basis, with both men looking to contest the fines.

The Sun has contacted CPM for comment.

It comes after a driver refused to pay his own parking fine because it was given to him in the "wrong" language.