Driver hit with $87 fine despite paying for parking – her appeal was denied but settlement proved she was in the right

A DRIVER says she has been vindicated by a settlement after she was handed an $87 fine despite paying for her parking.

The fuming motorists accused the firm responsible for trying to simply “get money” out of people with excessive charges.

9News

Lynne Zucker, from Denver, CO, claims she was handed a parking ticket in the city even after paying for a permit.

She insists that she paid the $16 required to park on a private lot while she was out and about.

But within a couple of weeks of her trip she had received a penalty notice demanding $87 for non-payment.

Lynne quickly realised that the issue came down to an “honest mistake” on her part.

She claimed that she had accidentally “transposed” her number plate when entering it into the machine.

This means she mistakenly reversed the plate, writing it backwards.

She then sent an appeal email to the company that manages the lot explaining the situation.

The firm then asked her to send a copy of either her ticket or a credit card statement showing that she had paid.

Lynne was unable to provide the former, claiming that the machine had failed to issue the permit, but sent off a card statement showing a $16 payment on the relevant date to the company which owns the lot.

However, the site operators denied her appeal, claiming that they could not verify the payment “based on the information provided”.

Instead, they offered to reduce the fine to $67 in as a recognition of her “efforts” to appeal.

Lynne told 9News: “They’re trying to get money out of me.

“However much they can get out of me.

“They’ve already got my $16 so they want more of my money.

“But I’m not going to give it to them, I absolutely refuse to give it to them.”

After refusing to pay up, she received a letter from an attorney which threatened her with debt collectors.

But Lynne claimed that she was vindicated by a settlement reached between the operator and the state Attorney General’s office last year following complaints over similar cases.

One of the drivers referred to in the case had made a similar error to hers.

Once this was put to the company by 9News, they denied all the claims in the settlement but did admit that Lynne’s fine was the result of a “technology glitch”.

The ticket was swiftly waved.

Lynne went on: “They’re trying to take advantage of people.

“We absolutely have proof that we’ve paid for this.”