A NURSE says she was mistakenly fined more than £450 for using a McDonald’s drive-thru – and she can’t fight the ticket.
Rachel Fairchild, 47, claims she was slapped with a ticket for parking near the fast-food giant for more than 24 hours – but she says that never happened.
She says what actually happened is she visited a Chesterfield McDonald’s two nights in a row to grab a bite on the go after work.
Rachel claims the system that captures cars coming and going from the Barlborough car park didn’t detect her leaving on the first night.
And the complex care nurse, who was working as an Amazon driver while she waited for her contract, said the ticket arrived in the mail five months later.
Rachel said she was shocked to read she’d been charged a hefty £300.
Read more on parking fines
She told the Derbyshire Times: “It was after a 14-hour shift and I was on my way home, I went into the drive-thru.
“Then I did the same the following night as I’d done another long shift.”
Rachel added: “I think it’s disgraceful when after working long hours you use a drive-thru and then you receive a parking fine for something that you’ve not even done.
“It’s quite appalling that the system is not accurate enough to see the vehicles leaving.”
The site is run by UK Parking Control Limited and the 47-year-old said she first received a letter from a debt collector on behalf of the company.
Rachel, who says she specialises in spine injuries and helps paralysed patients, said she wanted to complain but she couldn’t find a way to contact the company.
She claims the only phone number on the document was an automatic pay line.
Then, after deciding she wouldn’t cough up the cash, Rachel found another letter in her mailbox from another company.
She said: “I got through to a woman from the second company. I asked for a photo proof of my car actually in the car park, not the drive-thru, and she said they can’t provide it.
“She also said it was too far gone and I couldn’t contest it and added I would have to wait until I have received another letter from the court to complain.
“And then I received the third letter, still not from the court but a different company that just had the pay number on it again.
“I couldn’t get in touch with anyone.”
I literally just used the drive-thru, not even the car park.
Rachel Fairchild
Rachel says she has now received a letter from the court saying she owes £466.
She says she was told she can try contest the decision, but will have to pay more than £100.
Plus, if she loses, she will have to pay the court costs on top of the fine.
Rachel said: “I would understand this if I had left my car and I would happily pay the fine.
“But I did not leave the vehicle there at all, because I literally just used the drive-thru, not even the car park.”
She claimed she had read about another driver having “the exact same thing happen to them” at another McDonald’s in Sheffield.
Rachel added: “How many other people are suffering like this?
“Four hundred pounds is a lot of money and there’s a lot of vulnerable people out there that should not be getting a fine like that just because the system is not accurate.”
The Sun Online has approached UK Parking Control Limited for comment.
