Valid Euro Car Parks ticket holders chased by debt collectors | Money

Motorists have accused a leading car park management company of issuing “incorrect” parking fines; This left one mother defending herself against multiple debt collection agencies sent by the company.

Jane Winder says she was sent letters from five different debt collection agencies asking her to pay £170 after she was accused of not purchasing a £2.30 parking ticket at a car park run by Euro Car Parks in Lancashire.

He is one of several motorists who spoke to Guardian Money about their experiences, describing how they were threatened with court action despite saying they had provided evidence they had paid for parking.

Euro Car Parks manages more than 3,000 car parks across the UK and Ireland for organizations including supermarkets, hospitals, airports and universities.

The firm was recently in trouble when it was fined £473,000 by the UK Competition and Markets Authority for failing to notify the regulator.

The company uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to determine whether people have paid and sends out parking charge notices (PCNs) that issue fines to those who do not have the correct ticket.

PCNs issued by Euro Car Parks are the second most contested fines after those issued by another major firm, with 12,000 appeals filed for Euro Car Parks’ PCNs in 2023 and 15,000 in 2024, according to Popla, an independent appeals service.

In November 2023, the company sent Winder a £100 parking charge notice and gave him 28 days to pay the debt.

The 51-year-old man said he disputed the notice, which he felt was “wrong”, and sent his bank statement and a photo of his parking ticket to Euro Car Parks to prove he had paid. His appeal was rejected but he was only asked to pay a £20 administration fee.

He ignored the demand for £20 because he believed he “had done nothing wrong”, until he was bombarded with letters from the debt collection agency.

The first came in March 2024, when a Preston resident was contacted by a company called Debt Recovery Plus. He said he owed £170 and if he did not pay the debt he would go to court and his access to mortgages, loans and credit cards could be affected.

Winder called the agency to say he had proof of payment and would not pay the debt, but he said they insisted on payment.

Over the next 14 months Winder received letters from five different debt collection agencies demanding payment of £170.

“I was quite worried that someone would knock on my door and demand this money even though I didn’t owe it – it was terrifying,” he says.

Preston Joint Tribunal Center contacted him in June 2025 to state that Euro Car Parks had lodged an application with the court and would attend a hearing regarding the debt, which had risen to £278 at that point.

Confident in his defense against the company, he says: “I had to stand up for the little people, because these big corporations have the power to do this, and the majority of people will actually pay the price with the threat of the courts and debt collectors.”

At the last minute, the court told him that Euro Car Parks had terminated his debt.

He said: “I put up with this for two years and now they canceled everything… For me it was an admission of guilt.”

Other drivers have reported similar stories on review website Trustpilot (99% of the more than 3,000 reviews of the company at the time of writing are one-star) and on social media site Facebook and Guardian Money.

Kelly Haydock received £100 PCN after parking while doing afternoon shopping in Manchester in November 2023.

The 55-year-old man again sent a photo of his parking ticket and bank statement to Euro Car Parks, but his appeal was rejected. Threats from debt collectors overwhelmed him.

He said debt collectors “didn’t listen” to him and demanded payment.

The Wigan resident describes debt collectors using “bullying tactics” to get him to pay off his debt, which has risen to £170 by June 2024.

In May 2025 he received a letter from the Civic National Business Center stating that Euro Car Parks had taken him to court for £277.

But just before the court date, Wigan council’s foster care worker received a call from one of the debt collection companies agreeing to have the case dropped if he paid £75.

She says: “I shouldn’t have paid. My job as a foster carer can be quite stressful and I can cope on my own.

“But being threatened with bailiffs and courts and having people bully you and not believe what you say is really scary.

“This caused me a lot of stress and I paid the money so they could all go.”

After dealing with Euro Car Parks and numerous debt collectors for a year and a half, Haydock says he feels “very bitter” about the whole experience.

Michal Lucki, whose bank statement and parking ticket were also thrown out on appeal, says fighting Euro Car Parks and multiple debt collectors for £170 PCN was “mentally exhausting”.

He says the two-and-a-half-year ordeal, which began when he parked in a Bedfordshire car park in June 2023, has affected his life and left him on edge.

Lucki was finally released from Euro Car Parks and debt collectors in December 2025 and his court claim for £282 was dismissed after the parking company failed to pay the hearing fee to the county court.

Guardian Money sent details of the cases to Euro Car Parks and made multiple attempts to get a response, but it did not respond.