A fitness model was fined more than £1900 after she took more then five minutes to pay for her parking tickets.
Rosey Hudson, a professional bodybuilder and make-up artist from Derby, left her car in the Copeland Street car park in February 2023 before heading into work as usual.
She claims there was no ticket machine in operation and the reception in the area was poor, so she had to walk a little way before buying her daily ticket via the app.
But she was horrified to then receive ten Parking Charge Notices (PCN) because she had allegedly surpassed the ‘five-minute payment rule’ time.
When contacted Excel Parking Ltd who run the site said that she was ‘the author of her own misfortune’ as she had breached the rules.
The Bikini Athletic Pro Qualifier 2023 winner will now be taking the operator to court in an attempt to not have to pay the fines, as she brands them ‘utterly unreasonable’.
Rosey Hudson, a professional bodybuilder and make-up artist from Derby, left her car in the Copeland Street car park in February 2023 before heading into work
She claims there was no ticket machine in operation and the reception was poor, so she had to walk a little way before buying her daily ticket via the app
Copeland Car Park. Miss Hudson claims she paid the parking fee of £3.30 every time she used the car park
Miss Hudson claims she paid the parking fee of £3.30 every time she used the car park.
After she received the first PCN asking her to pay £100 charge within 28 days, reduce to £60 if paid within 14 days, she admitted that she paid it ‘to keep them off my back’.
She told the BBC: ‘I rang the company and explained the situation, and they basically said ‘you have to pay it’.
‘So to keep them off my back I did pay the initial parking fine.’
But to her horror she then received a further nine PCNs which totaled £1905.76, after Excel Parking Ltd added an extra £70 ‘debt recovery’ charge to each one, interest of eight percent per annum, a £115 court fee, and £80 costs for a legal representative.
The company have claimed that it took Miss Hudson on average an hour to pay the parking fee every time she used the car park, adding that the ‘five-minute rule’ is there to ‘mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers’.
After she received the first PCN asking her to pay £100 charge within 28 days, reduce to £60 if paid within 14 days, she admitted that she paid ‘to keep them off my back’
Miss Hudson, the 2023 winner of a bikini athletics show, said: ‘I haven’t got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there’s no signal here, and the machine being out of order’
When contacted Excel Parking Ltd who run the site said that she was ‘the author of her own misfortune’ as she had breached the rules
Excel Parking also claims Miss Hudson could have paid using cash at the machine, and said ‘there was at least one working pay machine on site’.
Miss Hudson, who is also a Dior make-up artist, said: ‘I haven’t got children but I can imagine a busy mum trying to sort her kids out, trying to pay for something when there’s no signal here, and the machine being out of order.
‘This has been going on for over a year now, and I’m just really hoping it can be resolved.
‘I desperately don’t want this to happen to anybody else, more than anything, because it gives you a lot of stress.’
In a statement, a spokesperson for Excel Parking said: ‘The signage at the car park made it clear that it was ‘Pay on Entry’ and that there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff.
‘This is one of the specific terms and conditions for use of the car park. It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms.
‘It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune.’
