When you’re hit with a £100 parking fine, you’d usually assume your car was actually parked where the ticket says it was.
But for Maurizio Capoccia, there was a morbid reason that wasn’t possible.
The pensioner was handed a £100 fine which said he had parked at a north London Sainsbury’s, but at the time he was actually at a funeral miles away.
Maurizio, 66, from Enfield, was left shocked when he received a surprise fine from Euro Car Parks saying his blue Suzuki had spent hours at the supermarket car park on Friday, January 27.
The pensioner, who lives with his wife Brigida, 60, and dog Max, said it was ‘impossible’ he was at the supermarket on Crown Road.
The couple, who have two adult children, were attending Brigida’s uncle’s funeral on the other side of town at St John Vianney Catholic Church.
He told Metro: ‘My wife and I had to go to a funeral at 11am on Friday, January 27.
‘They said the fine was on the same day. It said we were at Sainsbury’s for six hours.
‘The church is six miles from it.’
He said getting the £100 fine was ‘definitely a shock.’
‘How did Euro Car Parks have photos of my car at the same time in the car park?
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‘We left home at 10am and before that my wife was at Boots, and I took my dog out. I never leave my dog in the car on his own for shopping,’ he said.
Maurizio decided to challenge the fine issued by the parking giant, which runs more than 750 car parks in the UK and Europe.
‘The fine was £60 and £100 after that. I didn’t pay because once you pay, they close the case,’ he said.
Fortunately, the couple were captured on the church’s CCTV, which they gave to Maurizio.
But, getting hold of Euro Car Parks was ‘difficult,’ he claimed.
‘It was very difficult to communicate with Euro Car Park. We didn’t hear from them,’ he alleged.
After repeated attempts to send the CCTV footage to the company to challenge the fine, he complained to Sainsbury’s.
‘They told us our fine is being cancelled.’
He said it’s the ‘injustice’ that angers him, adding that ‘we couldn’t be there, couldn’t be there for six hours.’
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: ‘We’re in touch with the customer to apologise for their experience and have worked with Euro Car Parks to arrange for the parking fine to be waived. We’re looking into what happened on this occasion.’
We approached Euro Car Parks for a comment.
A version of this article was previously published on March 26, 2025
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