Letter of the law: X mistaken for K in parking mix-up

One letter made all the difference for a man who received a string of parking charges after an enforcement camera mistook the X on his number plate for a K.

Stephen Cheeseman, from Stilton in Cambridgeshire, said he received six charges over the last six months, all for the car park at the Dragonfly Hotel in Peterborough.

The 71-year-old "panicked" when the first parking charge was posted to him in February. But photographs provided by Civil Enforcement Ltd showed a different make of car entering the site.

Cheeseman said the parking company has apologised and promised "it won't happen again". The BBC has approached Civil Enforcement Ltd for comment.

Cheeseman said: "I received a document from the company and when I opened it, I was panicked because there was a £100 charge to be paid.

"The last time I went close to there [Dragonfly Hotel] was the rowing club six years ago."

He said he called the hotel who "were very helpful" before returning the documents to the parking company, adding that he "heard nothing" from them.

"This has then gone on for a total of six times... I was worried that the number plate on the car had been cloned," Cheeseman added.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras record entry and exit times of parked vehicles and in this case confused the registrations.

Cheeseman said staff at the Dragonfly Hotel had been helpful and got to know him on a first name basis due to the amount of parking charges.

"One of the funny things was that on the last parking fine I had, I had two envelopes come through the door," he said.

"One said your parking ticket has been cancelled, and we think there's a duplication it won't happen again, and the next one open said here's another parking ticket."

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