The incident happened at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Leeds (Picture: Google)
A man has been left dumbfounded after being handed a parking ticket for staying at a McDonald’s for 14 hours.
Ben Butler-Sutton, 32, visited a McDonalds’s in Leeds and left 20 minutes later, content with his Big Mac and McChicken Sandwich meal.
So it came as a bit of a shock when he received a letter from the company that operates the restaurant’s ANPR cameras, UKPC, telling him he stayed overnight and must pay a fine.
Ben told the Yorkshire Evening Post: ‘I do enjoy an occasional McDonalds, and I know their drive thru can be slow, but it certainly wasn’t 14 hours and 26 minutes.
‘If anything, I was somewhat amused. I though “what utter incompetence” and “how many people have actually paid fines for presumably faulty cameras?”‘
Despite his adamance that he did not spend his entire evening in the fast-food chains drive-thru, Ben is still waiting on a response from the company.
Thankfully, the 32-year-old has come prepared with an alibi, and working cameras.
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He said: ‘If UKPC ask for proof I wasn’t there, my home CCTV system will prove I was at home between the stated times.’
The stress of the appeal has not affected Ben, with the chance to expose ‘stupidity’ making it feel ‘like Christmas’.
‘I like to expose incompetence, bad driving and general stupidity – this is like Christmas,’ he explained.
Ben is not the only victim of questionable parking tickets. In April, a man was hit with a £65 fine after his car’s shadow was in disabled space.
Matthew Cole’s silver Ford estate’s offending shadow crept into the disabled spot outside Blackheath Post Office in Lewisham, London.
He said: ‘It’s absurd. There’s no signage where I parked and the photos they sent me only show the shadow of my car in the disabled spot.
‘It’s completely wrong. They’re enforcing something that’s not there.
‘I think £65 is not a lot to many people today but the principle is wrong. If you don’t pay the fine in a certain time it doubles to £130 which is a lot.’
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‘I know their drive-thrus can be slow, but not 14 hours’