A pensioner has adamantly refused to pay a hefty £170 parking fine, insisting he tried to purchase a £1 ticket but was stopped in his tracks by a faulty machine in the Essex border. 75 year old Berkeley Bathurst was attempting to park in Hornchurch when he discovered the ticket dispenser was out of service – and he wasn’t carrying a mobile phone to pay by an alternative method.
After leaving his vehicle for a brief errand at the local Post Office, the great-grandfather later found a £100 penalty in the mail, which escalated to £170 coupled with legal threats shortly before the festive season. Mr Bathurst, a retired gardener, is determined to battle the charge all the way, slamming the car park operators as “gangsters” and questioning their expectation for him to solve the machine’s dysfunction.
Mr Bathurst said: “How could I pay if the machine wasn’t working? I tried to appeal but I was told it was rejected. I’m not paying it because I’m not going to be ripped off. This has caused me so much stress because that’s a flipping lot of money. Where am I going to get £170?”
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Immensely stressed by the ordeal, Mr Bathurst continued: “It’s not my responsibility to maintain their machines. They said I should’ve found an alternative method of paying. They seemed to think it was my responsibility that the machine didn’t work. That’s absolute rubbish. We are not going to put up with this sort of thing. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
On October 16, Mr Bathurst parked his vehicle at Elm Park car park for a quick visit to the Post Office. He alleges he attempted to buy a parking ticket but was confronted with a ‘Not in use’ message on the machine. Mr Bathurst still ran his errand, before finding himself facing a fine in the mail weeks after.
(Image: SWNS)
Initially dismissing the fine, matters soon escalated when debt collectors ZZPS got involved, tacking on a £70 admin fee and threatening county court action. The correspondence from ZZPS also warned of ‘additional charges’ if he failed to settle the heightened penalty.
As Christmas approached, his anxiety grew. Mr Bathurst shared: “They sent the [second] letter saying we owe them £170 three days before Christmas. I thought, ‘How disgraceful sending that letter to old age pensioners’. We had the worry of that all Christmas; worrying they would send bailiffs to our door.”
Determined not to give in, continued: “I am not paying it. End of story. We will fight it tooth and nail, until the end. It was a pound, that’s all it was. It’s all a con, in my opinion. They’re like the mafia: ‘Pay up, or else’. They’re gangsters, ripping people off and frightening the hell out of people like us. We will not pay a penny.”
(Image: SWNS)
Mr Bathurst’s wife Angela, 73, joined in the criticism of One Park Solution, the parking company in question, by saying she found their behaviour “tyrannical” especially considering the minor amount of the initial parking charge. She said: “It seems to me that money is these parking people’s God and that’s it, they don’t care. He was barely there for ten minutes.”
The couple, who have been Hornchurch residents for 30 years, are now urging locals to be vigilant when using this car park to stave off getting slapped with similar penalties.
Despite attempts for a statement, One Park Solution has not yet commented on Mr Bathurst’s case.