Rugby man fights £400 parking fines for sold car

A 69-year-old man from Rugby, Merrick Clarke, is facing significant trouble after receiving parking fines for a car he no longer owns. In January, he was surprised to find debt recovery notices for a Peugeot which he sold in September 2020. The fines, totaling £400, were connected to parking violations from 2020 and 2021 at St Cross Hospital. Initially, Clarke thought it was a simple mistake. He contacted the debt recovery company, DCBL, and informed them that he was not the owner of the car. However, despite providing the details of the current owner, DCBL continued to pursue him for the fines. They eventually took him to court, resulting in a £325 fine and a county court judgment against him. Clarke attempted to clarify his situation by contacting DCBL multiple times, but the company did not accept his claims. He eventually paid the fine and extra fees to remove the judgment from his record. Despite this, he later received more fines for the same vehicle, which he could prove he did not own thanks to documentation from the DVLA. After a long back-and-forth with DCBL and Parking Eye, which had initially issued the penalties, Clarke is now planning to take legal action. He hopes to recover the £400 he paid, stating the process has caused him a lot of stress. Parking Eye maintains that Clarke did not engage with their appeals process when the fines were first issued, which led to escalation.