'Below the belt' parking fine at Luton Asda cancelled after pensioner hits out
A 79-year-old Luton pensioner hit with a £100 parking fine after visiting Asda for his weekly shop has claimed victory after it was cancelled.
Anthony Sellers was sent a notice by parking operator ParkingEye three days after visiting the Asda supermarket on Wigmore Lane, Luton, earlier this month.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras recorded his car in the car park for one hour and 57 minutes – over the 90-minute limit.
But Anthony, who has shopped at the supermarket for his weekly groceries for 20 years, said the fine was “a bit below the belt” given his restricted mobility and ongoing health problems.
He suffered a heart attack in November 2025 and is awaiting a hip replacement, which he says has severely restricted his mobility. He uses a wheeled walker both indoors and outdoors and says he has been trying to obtain a Blue Badge to make parking easier, but has so far been unsuccessful.
The fine was cancelled after Anthony contested it with a manager at the supermarket. But he has raised questions over the signs warning drivers how long they can park.
He said: “The first sign is on a lamp post if you just drive in by the petrol station, the last thing you're going to do is look up in the air, to see what the sign says, because that way, someone behind you is going to smack your car up the back side.”
Anthony claimed he would have switched to shopping at Iceland if the fine hadn’t been cancelled – and said he’d been relying on his son to take him shopping following the incident.
He said: “I don't think Asda appreciate their customers. I think that's the trouble. But they should consider the customer because it's the customer that gives them the money that keeps their shop going.
“I told them I would never have paid this fine, even if they would take me to the biggest court in the land.”
A ParkingEye spokesperson said: “The site features 35 prominent signs explaining the parking terms and conditions. The car park is for customers only, has a maximum stay period of 90 minutes, a no-return period of two hours, and parking is not permitted outside store opening hours.
“The signage also advises motorists who need to stay longer to speak to a member of the store's customer service team and provide their vehicle registration details.
“In this case, the vehicle remained in the car park for almost two hours and no request for an extended stay was made. The overstay was identified by the site’s ANPR camera system and a parking charge was issued.
“While the motorist did not appeal directly to Parkingeye, they contacted the store and provided evidence that they were a genuine customer. Following a request from Asda, the parking charge was cancelled.”
Asda was contacted for comment but did not respond.