A PARKING boss and company have been lumped with thousands of pounds in costs and fines after storing customers' vehicles in a public Southampton car park.
Alan Robert Naylor and EZEPARKING Ltd have been landed with a bill totalling almost £8,000 for flouting consumer rights.
Naylor - the company director - appeared at Southampton Crown Court to be sentenced having previously pleaded guilty to breaching consumer protection legislation.
EZEPARKING is a local cruise and airport parking provider which advertised it would keep its customer’s vehicles safe and well protected.
However, on two occasions its staff used Eastgate Street multi-storey car park to store customers’ vehicles.
Six customer cars were left at the council-run site for a total of eleven days.
CCTV footage shown at Southampton Crown Court showed the vehicles leaving the car park while tailgated behind a Vauxhall Zafira owned by Naylor in an “illegal and dangerous manner”.
Prosecution barrister, Duncan Milne said the cars were “driven very close. Bumper to bumper”.
The company was prosecuted because customers were not made aware that their vehicles would be kept in a public council car park.
The outstanding parking fees were repaid eight months later, after being pursued by the council.
Mr Milne added how one of the victims described feeling shocked and misled.
Defending, Mark Ashley, said his client had not been working at the time of the offences in November and December 2018.
He said: “It was the duty manager who was the person who was driving the vehicle.”
Mr Ashley added that the employee is no longer with the company and how Naylor was previously of good character.
Miss Recorder Kate Brunner QC ordered Naylor, of Brownwich Lane in Fareham to pay a £500 fine, EZEPARKING a £4,000 fine, compensation “in the region of £200” to two victims, and £3,000 in costs to Southampton City Council.
Commenting on the case, Cabinet Member for Green City and Place, Councillor Steve Leggett, said: “This conviction is a great result and sends out a clear message to others who would look to break the law ensuring companies operating in the city give customers the services they have paid for.”
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