Laid man says Aldi parking fine made him feel 'like a criminal'
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A SUTHERLAND man who received a parking fine after visiting an Inverness supermarket has had the charge cancelled after the Northern Times stepped in.
Hugh Maclellan, from Laid, only noticed the letter informing him of the fine after undergoing a quadruple heart bypass operation in September.
His trip to the Highland capital was in August when he got the weekly shop at a branch of Aldi at Inshes Retail Park.
He said that, as he lived 110 miles away from the store, he did not visit it very often and he was completely unaware of restrictions for its car park – Parking Eye, the car park operator, had imposed a maximum stay of one and a half hours.
Me Maclellan said when he did visit the supermarket he always filled two shopping trolleys and added: "This takes some time and I empty the first trolley to the car then head back into the shop to refill it.
"In August there were excessive queues and each time a delay of almost 15 minutes occurred due to slow checkout services which is always unhelpful."
He said that the time he had spent in the store's car park, almost two hours, was the time he had spent inside the shop and this was usually how long any of his shopping trips took.
Mr Maclellan said that the parking charge notice had made him "feel like a criminal as if I have deliberately cheated Aldi out of a car parking space".
He added: "I was completely unaware of any parking restrictions at the car park and did not look for any signs on my way into the shop.
"If I had been aware of these restrictions then I would not have shopped at Aldi and would have quite simply gone across the road to Tesco."
When the Northern Times contacted Aldi on Mr Maclellan's behalf a spokeswoman said: “We are happy to review all cases if a customer believes a parking fine was issued in error, and have instructed the company that manages the car park at our Inshes Park store to cancel Mr Maclellan’s charge.”
