A disabled Perth pensioner has vowed to slap an ASBO on a controversial parking firm, claiming they harassed him to pay a cancelled fine.
Ian Thomson claimed Smart Parking has been chasing him over a disputed parking fine at Asda that the supermarket had already agreed to write off.
The 70-year-old, of Muirton Bank, has since received letters from two different debt collection companies demanding that he pay the fine or he will be taken to court.
He said: “This has caused me a lot of stress. They’re just harassing me. I wrote Asda a letter and I thought that was it finished and then I started getting all these other letters through.
“I don’t know who these companies are. I thought this was going to go on forever until they get the money out of me. How many other people have received letters like this? I am a disabled war pensioner and I don’t have to put up with this.”
Mr Thomson received a ticket for parking in a disabled bay at Asda Perth, Dunkeld Road, on December 9 last year, despite being the owner of a valid disabled parking permit. After complaining to the store, Asda officials upheld his appeal and paid a home visit on March 4 to confirm they would cancel the charge.
However, Smart Parking have continued to pursue him for payment. Mr Thomson was shocked to receive a letter from Debt Recovery Plus on March 11 demanding payment of £120 or there would be court proceedings against him.
After ignoring the letter, Mr Thomson was then shaken to receive a further letter, this time from Zenith Collections on April 13, offering a chance to take a discounted settlement offer of £80.
Mr Thomson said: “I didn’t even know Asda had a right to issue such tickets. I thought it was a scam targeting elderly customers at Asda.
“Asda have been pretty decent. As soon as I wrote them a letter they came to my house to apologise and wrote to me saying it was cancelled.
“I intend raising an action for harassment against Smart Parking and to get an ASBO on them.”
A spokesman said: “A Smart Parking spokesman said: “Asda does give blue badge holders special parking rights, but asks them to register at the customer service desk if they think they are going to take longer to shop than the standard three hours available parking.
“In the case of Mr Thomson, he parked for over three hours, but he had never registered his blue badge at the customer service desk, so he received a parking charge.
“However, Asda have asked us to cancel his charge, which we have now done. Unfortunately there was a crossover of letters before the cancellation of his charge went through our system.
“We have now included Mr Thomson’s details on to the system so he will not receive any more notices.”