Council paints disabled bay around parked car then issues ticket to driver while he was on holiday
A council fined a driver four times after a disabled bay was painted around his legally parked car.
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The man, who asked not to be identified, left his car near his come in New Addington south London, while he went on holiday last month.
He returned to find four tickets on his vehicle.
His CCTV showed workmen painting a disabled bay around his Audi. Parking wardens then turned up, giving him tickets between November 22 and 26.
Croydon council has ‘apologised’ and said it was standard practice to paint around vehicles to prevent delays in painting, however it does not prevent parking attendants from issuing fines.
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The owner said: “It really put a dampener on my holiday because I kept checking [the camera] to see what was wrong and there was nothing I could do.
“I didn’t want to go out and do the things I wanted to do because I was worried about the amount of tickets I was accumulating.
“I think the issue here is because there was no communication in the beginning, there has been a snowball effect of wrongdoing,” he added.
He also said he had received criticism from neighbours who accused him of parking there deliberately - so he went public with the CCTV in response.
“It really upset me. I just thought, ‘Why are you looking at me as the bad guy?’” he said.
The council said that the tickets “were not processed into fines because we had a note on the system from our contractor.”