A PARKING company has apologised after wrongly handing out a parking fine at a services in Wrexham

On July 17, Graeme Esp, from Wrexham visited the Rhostyllen services to pick up his morning paper from the Esso garage. 

Along with the Esso garage, the services is host to a Travelodge, a Starbucks and a Subway. 

Customers are able to make use of Esso car park for an 30 minutes free of charge, but after that there are parking charges depending on the duration of stay. 

A couple of weeks after picking up his paper on the morning of the 17th, Mr Esp and was hit with a parking fine, having been adjudged to have parked for over 24 hours. 

This is despite him parking at the Esso garage and only being on site for a matter of minutes. 

The fine issued was £25 if paid within 14 days, or £85 after 28 days, but Mr Esp told the Leader he had no intention of paying the fine and is wanting to warn others about potential future fines. 

Mr Esp said: "They should stop doing it, I've heard a few people have been issued fines there.

"Vulnerable people will pay it won't they because they won't know what's gone on, but I'm not one of them. 

"You can't contact them over the phone, you can only pay over the phone, but I'm not paying it. 

"I have appealed it but I shouldn't have to do it in the first place. 

"I'm just trying to stop other people getting charged the same way I did. I didn't even park in the car park, I parked in the garage."

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Horizon parking, the firm that run the car park at the services, have since apologised to Mr Esp, and encouraged anyone else who has wrongly been fined to appeal 

A Horizon spokesperson said: "We’re sorry to hear of the issues the driver experienced. The PCN has already been cancelled following their appeal.

"Occasionally PCNs can be issued in error, and we are thoroughly investigating to see how we can avoid this in future. We would advise any driver to appeal using the details within the PCN if they feel the PCN has been issued incorrectly.

"Specifically for Esso customers here, customers have 30 minutes free before any payment is required."