Motorist surprised to receive £1.4 million bill after parking at shopping centre three times

A motorist was surprised after getting a car parking bill for £1.4 million. James Adams parked in the centre of Ashford, Kent, for his regular shopping trips last month.

He used the mobile phone app Parkmobile to pay for parking charges on three visits in July, and logged on to pay the bill at the end of the month. But when the invoice finally arrived for July, he was surprised to count five more zeros than he expected, with an overall invoice for more £1.41 million.



The car park charges £4.50 for more than four hours of parking, which means that he could park there for 313,333 days in a row, or 858 years. Mr Adams said: “I was quite shocked, but I knew it had been an error. I dread to think that it might have frightened the life out of some other people.

“I logged into my account to the car park and saw there were too many zeros. I spoke to the company and they said there had been a cock-up at their end and I saw the funny side of it.” Parkmobile has apologised for the error, which should have in fact been a bill for £14.10.