Pensioner, Peter Barnes, was horrified when he received a parking fine in the post from G24 Ltd, the company that runs the `free' car parks at Salford Precinct.
Shoppers are allowed three hours free parking (with no return for an hour) on the car parks, and Peter's `Final Notice' letter carrying the £100 fine showed camera evidence of his car entering the car park at 11:03am and leaving at 4:10pm – five hours later.
What the photos didn't show was that he'd actually only stayed a short while during his first visit, then drove home and came back later for another short stay. Instead of maybe four images of his car coming and going within the allotted time, the letter only showed two images of his car entering the first time and then leaving after his last visit.
"I go to the Precinct on quite a regular basis, sometimes two or three times in a day" Peter explains "I drop my wife off, then I might go the chip shop and quite a few places but I don't stay for anywhere near three hours. And I don't return within the hour.
"To make you pay they've got to take you to court in front of a judge and they've got no chance because they would have to produce the recordings of the day, including showing the time in between" he adds "I think they are just trying it on...It's a racket."
The same thing also happened to Peter's friend, David Hartley, a few years ago and he believes that many shoppers might be going through the same experience, particularly in the run up to Christmas.
"My wife works on the Precinct so I dropped her off in the car park at 9am, drove straight out and picked her up about 4pm" he recalls "They should have had four images on their system but only showed me arriving at 9am and leaving at 4pm. I couldn't believe it.
"I wrote in and explained what they did wrong, and that I'd only been on there a maximum of two minutes, and got a standard letter back saying `We will not be pursuing this'" he adds "But there was nothing to pursue.
"They shouldn't be doing it" he explains "I do a lot of driving and a lot of parking, and if you're working it's a hassle writing in. They need to get the system right. The system's wrong. And it's not good for business. The Precinct is struggling for business and this will just drive more people away."
The Salford Star contacted G24 Ltd about the cases but the company wouldn't comment. Neither would the manageress of Salford Shopping Centre, although she did add that if Peter contacted them they would see what they could do.
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