Woman charged £4,586 for two-hour car park stay

BBC Three Counties Radio

Yaditi Kava had been shopping and went for dinner at Queensmere when she was accidentally overcharged for parking

A mum was left "in shock" after being accidentally charged £4,586 for a two-hour session at a multi-storey car park.

Yaditi Kava, 39, said she had typed in her pin number at the exit barrier at Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre in Slough, without noticing the amount.

She said it took three weeks and intervention from the BBC Three Counties JVS Show before her money was refunded.

Savills, which manages the shopping centre, said it was "an isolated incident" and it was investigating the system to prevent future problems.

Ms Kava was shocked when she was charged £4,586 rather than £4.50 at the car park

Ms Kava had taken her two young girls shopping after work on Friday, 16 May, and decided to "grab some dinner before going home".

On returning, the area with parking payment machines was closed, so she decided to pay at the exit.

"I tapped my contactless card, then a message displayed saying I needed to enter my PIN," she said.

"I was in a rush, the girls were getting tired, and I did not see the number on the small card machine.

"The big display showed '4,5', so I thought it was £4.50."

The barrier lifted, and she immediately received a text notification from her bank.

"To my shock, I saw that they had deducted not £4.50 but £4,586 from my account," she recalled.

"It was surreal - I just couldn't fathom that they had taken that money."

Savills said it was investigating to prevent the problem from happening again

Ms Kava said she had to wait until Monday to speak to the manager, who told her "it was a faulty machine".

She continued: "He made a receipt on 19 May and assured me I would see that money in my account within 2-3 working days."

But three weeks later, the money had still not appeared.

"I'm going through a divorce at the moment and had saved that money to pay legal fees," she said.

"I was going to call off my daughter's birthday party, it was a lot of stress."

Feeling like she was "spiralling and going nowhere," Ms Kava reported the case to the consumer rights programme the JVS show, presented by Jonathan Vernon-Smith.

"It was a godsend - One call from Jonathan, and the next day the money was in my bank," she said, adding that the full refund arrived on Saturday ,7 June.

Speaking before the money was returned, Savills told the BBC: "Savills can confirm that it is aware of an isolated incident concerning an anomaly with a parking charge in the car park.

"We have been in regular contact with the customer to rectify the issue as a matter of priority and can confirm a full refund is being processed.

"This was a very unusual occurrence, and we are investigating the car park system to prevent this from happening in the future."