Lidl to investigate ‘deluge of fines’ from inaccurate parking tickets

Lidl to investigate ‘deluge of fines’ from inaccurate parking tickets

10 January 2024

SUPERMARKET giant Lidl is investigating how shoppers visiting its Downpatrick store were erroneously issued with parking tickets claiming they had been there for over 24 hours.

The Recorder understands that what is being described as a “deluge of fines” have been dished out to unsuspecting shoppers who did not exceed the one hour free parking limit at the Market Street outlet.

Disgruntled shoppers have raised the issue with South Down MLA Colin McGrath who has contacted senior Lidl officials calling for the issue to be addressed as a matter of urgency and for all tickets to be immediately rescinded.

He said while dealing with parking fines and helping people who feel they have been issued with tickets unfairly is nothing new, he has ben left “shocked” at the scale of the Lidl parking ticket issue.

Mr McGrath said many of the fines were issued over the hectic Christmas shopping period.

“Shoppes have told me they parked for the permitted time when there is no charge only to be subsequently charged for parking in excess of 24 hours,” he revealed.

Mr McGrath contacted Lidl and was assured by the retail giant that the matter would be fully investigated.

“I have been told that while what happened is rare, on occasion, if the registration plate on a vehicle is obscured, the camera which polices the car park will not register its exit and that such anomalies are normally picked up by the management company.”

Mr McGrath appealed on social media for anyone who had wrongly been erroneously issued with a parking ticket for the Lidl car park to contact him and could not believe the response.

“I was absolutely appalled at the deluge of people who came forward with their own stories,” he revealed.

“There are over 40 individual examples so far, to say nothing of the number of people who commented on my social media post with their own examples. In some cases, I am being told people were parked for 70 hours.”

Mr McGrath said there may already be people who have paid either £45 or £90 illicit parking fines, explaining some of the tickets were issued as far back as last June.

“Issuing these tickets is entirely unjustified,” he declared.

“Given the scale of this revelation I think the immediate action Lidl should take is to rescind all of these parking tickets and charge the company responsible for issuing them. In addition, how this company issues tickets must also be examined to determine where the error took place and ensure that this is not repeated.

Mr McGrath believes there are major issues with private agencies operating on private land and threatening innocent people with legal action. 

He added: “Action needs to be taken to prevent such profiteering from taking place in future. And it absolutely galls me that we remain unable to raise such matters within the Assembly for the good of the people.”