Luton man warns shoppers to register their cars when parking at Lidl after successfully fighting fine

Leroy Shircore, who visited the store on Marsh Road, on Saturday, January 11, was shocked when he received a £90 parking fine a few days later for using the store's car park.

He was in the car park for just under an hour but had not registered his car, if he paid the fine in 14 days it would be £45.

Leroy said: "I done my shopping, paid and then went home. A few days later I get a parking fine because apparently you have to register your car otherwise you get a fine.

"The fine is £45 and if I don't pay it by Friday, it goes up to £90, I am not going to pay it. I don't think I should, I think Lidl are just trying to get more money out of customers.

"No one in the store or at the till said to me about having to register my car registration.

"There are signs in the car park that say that if you register your car the parking is free, but I didn't read the signs because in most supermarkets you get an hour free and you do not have to do anything.

"I didn't even bother reading the sign because I knew I wouldn't be more than an hour, I was there from 2.28pm till 3.22pm.

"I think the cashier should have told me about registering my car, I have complained and they said I have to pay the fine because I didn't register the car. I think Lidl should tell their customers at the till about the parking."

Lidl were unaware of Mr Shircore's fine and they have now cancelled it.

A spokesman for Lidl said: "We were extremely sorry to hear of this matter and sincerely apologise to the customer for any inconvenience caused.

"We have car park management systems in place to help ensure availability of parking spaces for our customers, and have found that 90 minutes' free parking, with a 10 minute grace period, is generally the optimum amount of time for shopping in our stores.

"The in-store validation system is in common use now across different industry sectors, allowing genuine customers to validate their parking.

"It’s therefore extremely disappointing when we learn that customer has received a fine.

"In the highly unfortunate event that this does happen, we encourage them to get in touch with Athena ANPR directly so that the charge can be cancelled as swiftly as possible for them."

Mr Shircore added: "I'm happy that the fine has been cancelled, I did shop in the store and I'm glad they have taken that into account and cancelled it.

"I just want to make people aware that they do need to register their cars before they go shopping, it is an easy mistake to make, but I'm glad Lidl have sorted it."