A DRIVER has issued a warning to motorists after he was falsely accused of parking his car at a Tesco store for more than five hours.

The Boscombe resident drove into the supermarket car park in Poole at 7.27am on October 17.

Private firm Horizon Parking, who manage enforcement on behalf of Tesco, sent the motorist a parking charge notice which suggested he did not leave the car park until 12.29pm and he had exceeded the time limit.

However, he had in fact only been in the store for around 10 minutes before driving to the nearby garage for repair work to be carried out on his vehicle.

Once this was complete he drove back to same Tesco Extra in Waterloo Road, Fleetsbridge, to use the petrol station before heading home.

Horizon Parking accepted his appeal and in their recent response to him cited an “error” as the reason that his two separate visits were not registered.

In confirming the charge would be scrapped, the company told him: “Whilst errors are mercifully rare, there are a number of possible reasons why a vehicle registration may be either missed or unreadable by an ANPR camera.

“These can range from another vehicle driving too closely to the photographed vehicle during busy periods, through to a number plate that is obscured due to poor weather conditions or dirt.

“It is apparent that a capture of your vehicle has been missed on this occasion. When problems are highlighted to us, such as in this scenario, we are able to investigate and apply remedy.”

The motorist, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Echo he wanted other people to be vigilant and challenge private parking firms if they believe they have been wrongly issued with a charge notice.

“At first I thought it was because maybe I went in there and because I paid in cash or something strange like that,” he said.

“I was really annoyed but when I started to read the notice and they said I had exceeded the time limit I knew they were in the wrong.

“I had proof from the garage of where the car had been all that time.

“We all have to be very wary of these sorts of things."

  • Read more: Traffic lights could be in road until MONDAY - despite work being completed

He added: “I had all the evidence so there was no way they were going to get me to pay the £70 charge.

“A lot of people will just pay it to get it off their back.

“I think when people are wrongly accused and issued with these notices, the company should pay what ever the charge is to the person as compensation and a gesture of good will.”

The Daily Echo approached Horizon Parking for comment.