A DRIVER who received a bill for parking behind a York cinema has described the company who fined him as “heavy handed”, after the case was dismissed at court.

Jim Richards, 46, of Elvington, received an initial bill for £60 after allegedly parking for 37 minutes more that he paid for at a site behind the Reel Cinema in Blossom Street.

Since the incident last April, he has been embroiled in a lengthy wrangle with Minster Baywatch, which rejected his appeal.

The case was recently dismissed by a judge at York County Court, which Mr Richards said was due to a technicality.

He said: “Minster Baywatch had not and could not prove that their witness statement had been submitted on time.”

Father-of-three Mr Richards had paid to use the car park for two hours while he and his family were at the cinema.

After waiting for his wife to arrive, he then paid for a ticket. When he left the cinema, he claims he was unable to leave the car park before the parking time had expired because a car was blocking his vehicle in.

He left just four minutes after the expiry time, he said. The bill was “deliberately punitive and unfair,” Mr Richards said. “I thought it was an injustice.”

On appeal, Minster Baywatch alleged that, according to its ANPR camera, Mr Richards arrived 33 minutes before he paid for a ticket and that “37 minutes highly exceeds the site grace period.”

Mr Richards said: “I waited their for my wife to arrive so I could pay for both cars together. I didn’t think I had to pay if I didn’t leave the car. I didn’t realise I was that amount of time anyway. But there is no way to back pay in any shape or form.”

He said: “Their argument to turn down my fine is that I had exceeded my grace period. How can I exceed a grace period that you are not notified about? In their signage it doesn’t say they have a grace period.”

A spokesman for Minster Baywatch said: “The individual in question appears to have made it clear they had entered a privately owned Pay & Display site for a period of 30 minutes before choosing to pay for a parking session. This is a small site that is clearly signed showing payment for any duration of visit must be paid for in full. There are two methods of payment available to users; payment at the Pay & Display machine or via Pay by Phone so we would question why payment was not made upon entry to a site in these circumstances. Camera technologies do operate”.