Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver fined after picking up customers from Southport's Ocean Plaza twice in one day

https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire- ... g-16272543

The automatic number plate recognition cameras claimed he stayed 20 hours in the car park

A taxi driver was hit with an £85 fine after picking up customers at the same car park twice in a day.

Harry Burczyk was fined after automatic cameras mistakenly recorded him having spent more than 20 hours in the car park at Ocean Plaza in Southport.

The car park, operated by Horizon Parking, uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to register each time a vehicle enters or leaves.

Drivers are then sent a penalty notice if they stay longer than the allowed time or fail to either pay for parking or receive validation from one of the on-site businesses.

But Harry, who drives for All Whites taxis, says the technology failed him when he visited once in the early hours of April 12 and again later that evening, leading to a fine being sent to his home.

While Harry says he visited once to collect customers at 12.30am and again when he was back on shift at 9.02pm, the ANPR images suggested he never left the car park.

To make matters worse, he was on holiday when the penalty notice arrived, meaning he missed the early payment window which would have limited the fine to £50.

He is now in the process of appealing and wants other drivers to be aware of the faulty technology.

He said: “It was straight when we came back from holiday and we were exhausted. We shouldn’t have to waste our time for this.

“I have to tell my missus as well and £85 is a lot of money!”

Harry, who has been driving taxis for three years, says he is confident that the appeal will be successful as his journeys are logged through his employer but fears other may not have the same means to prove when a mistake has been made.

He said: “I don’t understand it because they registered going into the the car park but not coming out, then not going in again but registered me coming out. Something isn’t right.”

Bernie Dickson, managing director of Horizon, said that he was unable to comment on individual cases but said that there was a thorough appeals process in place.

He said: “If there was a genuine reason for an appeal, whether from a mistake on behalf of us or the driver, we will look into the matter carefully.

“We are not here to hit people over the head, we are here to make sure the car park at Ocean Plaza works for its visitors.”

Same thing happened to one of our drivers at a Holiday Inn here, all it took was a phone call to the company and they cancelled it there and then.