A British tourist has been hit with a £170 fine after her 68-year-old dad dropped her at the airport without paying a £5 fee. Nicola Maher, 46, from Stockport, was given a lift to Manchester Airport by her dad Ray Watson in her car ahead of a flight to Tenerife in May. Mr Watson spent just “two minutes” stopped at Terminal 2’s drop-off point, but on her return, Ms Maher found she had been issued a £170 penalty by a debt recovery company on behalf of car park firm APCOA.
She said her dad had assumed the £5 charge would have to be paid onsite rather than online, and also thought being a blue badge holder would make him exempt from payment. While such measures do reportedly exist, they only apply to the travelling passenger rather than the driver. “He was dropping me off in my car, but because none of us had dropped anybody off in years, we thought you had to pay the £5 while you were there,” she told the Manchester Evening News.
“When he dropped us off, he had no inkling about this. He had the badge with him, and he said if he was to see the marshal he would show it to them. There were no barriers up, nothing, so he assumed he didn’t have to pay.”
The 46-year-old said she was also surprised that the first correspondence she received about the fine wasn’t from the parking firm.
“The naughtiest bit of it is sending it straight to a debt recovery [company] when you’re not notifying the customer at all,” she added. “I think it’s so wrong.”
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said: “Our new barrierless pick-up and drop off areas are reducing congestion around the airport by making sure that people no longer have to wait to exit the areas, which previously could cause traffic to back up.
“The feedback we’ve had from passengers tells us the new barrierless system has made the airport experience more seamless and they’re pleased that they no longer have to wait to leave the pick-up and drop-off areas.
“That means people aren’t ending up having to pay more than they should as a result of waiting at the barriers.
“The vast majority of passengers do remember to pay before the deadline but we want to make sure that people don’t forget so we’ve put prominent signage in place around the areas to make sure nobody misses it.”