I was slapped with 24 fines in just 3 weeks for parking outside my OWN home – I’ll be thousands out of pocket
A DRIVER was left stunned when he was slapped with 24 fines in just three weeks for parking outside his own home, with the bill running into the thousands.
Tony Hawkins found the “huge pile” of penalty notices dumped on his motor after returning from a holiday.
Tony, who is learning to drive to care for his partner who has a long-term health condition, couldn’t believe his eyes after coming back from a few weeks in Manchester only to find the vehicle laden with envelopes outside his East London home.
The 57-year-old discovered that his parking permit had expired without his knowledge and that, since he was away, he had not received any of the fines until it was too late.
He claims that four separate notices were issued within three hours of each other, while others had been rendered completely illegible by rain.
Given that parking fines usually double if not paid within 14 days, he fears he could be left thousands out of pocket.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I can pay them in dribs and drabs if I really squeeze my budget but I’m really scared if the other 20 come through.
“I’ve paid four already which has cost me £240.
“I’m really scared the others are going to come through en masse with 20 charges at [a maximum] of £130 each or something.”
He also argued that the local council’s response was “ethically wrong” after they told him that he had opted out of reminders about renewing his permit.
Moreover, he claimed that there was no option on their website to opt back into the updates and that the council has stopped using a third-party app which used to send them.
Tony added: “I’ve been on every single London borough’s website and if you query this with any other council where you’re getting multiple charges on the same day, they will cancel all but one.
“I don’t know what the full outcome is going to be, I might have to pay another 20 fines and it may go up,
“I really don’t know. It’s a phenomenal cost just because I didn’t renew my resident parking permit on time.”
A spokesperson for Barking and Dagenham Council maintained that he had been sent two email reminders between two and three weeks before the permit expired.
They said: “Unfortunately, the permit was not renewed, and he has since purchased a new permit.
“Where multiple tickets have been issued on the same day then they have been cancelled without a challenge.
“And where they have appealed the other tickets then they will have to await the outcome of the challenge.
“The resident can get in contact with the council’s parking services as was instructed last week.”
It comes after a woman was fined after floodwater hid the double yellow lines on her street.
Meanwhile, new data revealed the streets where it’s actually cheaper to accept a parking fine than to pay the legal rate all day.