Chesterfield taxi driver slapped with £100 parking fine – after dropping off a customer

A Chesterfield taxi driver says he dropped off a customer at a leisure park in the town – and ended up with a £100 parking fine.
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Alnoor Mamdani told the Derbyshire Times he let the customer out at McDonald’s at the Alma Leisure Park then ‘immediately’ left the Derby Road site to carry on with his job.

He has now received a letter from the firm which manages the car park claiming he ‘exceeded the five-hour maximum stay allowed’ – and demanding payment of £100 within 28 days.

Taxi driver Alnoor Mamdani is angry after being slapped with a £100 parking fine in Chesterfield. Picture by Brian Eyre.Taxi driver Alnoor Mamdani is angry after being slapped with a £100 parking fine in Chesterfield. Picture by Brian Eyre.
Taxi driver Alnoor Mamdani is angry after being slapped with a £100 parking fine in Chesterfield. Picture by Brian Eyre.
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Alnoor – who says he returned to the site in the afternoon and again left ‘immediately’ – believes a camera at the car park got a shot of him entering but not exiting in the morning.

The 58-year-old, who works for City Taxis, said: “I’m not happy about this at all.

“On November 21 I picked up a customer and dropped them off at McDonald’s at the Alma Leisure Park at 7.21am.

“I left immediately and carried on working.

“At 2.40pm, I returned to the McDonald’s with another customer and again left immediately.

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“I've now got a letter from HX Car Park Management Ltd saying I entered at 7.21am and left at 2.40pm.

“They claim I ‘exceeded the five-hour maximum stay allowed’ and are demanding £100 from me.

“They obviously got me on camera coming in at 7.21am – but they didn’t get me on camera immediately coming out.

“There’s clearly an issue with the camera at the site and they need to get it sorted.

“I want to warn other people that this has happened.”

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Alnoor, of Chesterfield, added: “I’ve got evidence that I wasn’t at the site for all that time – I was out and about in my taxi serving customers – and we’re currently in the process of appealing.”

The Derbyshire Times put Alnoor’s concerns to Lancashire-based HX Car Park Management Ltd and asked for a comment – but the firm hadn’t responded by the time of publication.

The company’s website states it uses ‘intelligent ANPR systems’ which ‘record the entry and exit times of all the vehicles parked on your land’.

Editor’s message

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