VOTE: Car park 'fraud' shocks drivers

While many people think it is a gesture of goodwill, it is actually a breach of the terms and conditions if a ticket is used for a different vehicle to the one for which it was purchased.

Reader Mr J. Lees, of The Plantation, Worthing, wrote to the Herald after he was caught offering his parking ticket for the Liverpool Gardens car park to another person.

"Upon leaving the car park, I still had more than an hour left on my three-hour ticket and offered the ticket to a lady thinking it was acceptable to do so," he wrote.

"However, I was overheard by the ticket collector, who had a grim, over-bearing jobsworthy attitude and accused me of a fraudulent act."

Mr Lees said he "deeply resented" the accusation over what he thought was an innocent gesture.

Drivers 'privilege'

On Tuesday afternoon, the Herald spoke to drivers in the car park and out of 39 people asked, 79 per cent said they passed tickets on to others to use or had done so in the past.

Just 30 per cent knew that to do so was considered a fraudulent act.

Kirsty Whittaker, 39, of Mountford Close, Shoreham, said: "If you've paid for the ticket already, it should be your right, your privilege, to pass it on."

Ross Lincoln, 20, of Townsend Crescent, Littlehampton, said: "I always pass my tickets on. I just think it's a kind thing to do."

A spokeswoman for NCP, which manages the Liverpool Gardens car park, said: "The signage next to our pay and display machines clearly states that all tickets are non-transferable within our terms and conditions in that the parking ticket is only valid for the vehicle in respect of which it is issued.

"Any surplus time left on a ticket should not be passed onto another customer within our car parks."

Have your say

Do you think it is wrong to pass on pay and display parking tickets with time left?

Vote yes or no in the panel to the right of the screen.

What do you think?

How often have you passed on or received a pay and display ticket with time left over?

What would you pass on? A train ticket? bus ticket?

Share your views, comment below, email the Herald or write in to Readers' Letters, Worthing Herald series, Cannon House, Chatsworth Road, Worthing, BN11 1NA. A full name and address is required for publication.

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