Supermarket quashes parking fine for veteran selling poppies

A car park management firm has cancelled a parking charge made against an army veteran selling poppies in a Fenland supermarket.

Michael Squire, 42, who served 13 years with the Royal Logistics Corps, including during the Iraqi war, received a penalty notice after parking at the Lidl car park in March on October 30 while he sold poppies for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal in the store.

The former squaddie’s horrified mum Elizabeth Brighton contacted the Citizen after receiving the fine in the post on Wednesday (10).

She said: “Michael knew he had to check in when he arrived at the store, so gave his details to the security guard including his registration number and thought that would be OK.

“But the next thing we know he’s received this £90 fine from Parkingeye because he overstayed the 90 minute time limit. To say we are livid is an under-statement.

“An army veteran being fined for selling poppies is just outrageous and we just want to warn other volunteers who might go into the store for a collection to be careful.”

However, having been alerted to the situation the firm behind the parking fine immediately cancelled it and urged anyone collecting in store to register directly with Lidl to avoid a parking charge.

A spokesperson for Lidl GB said: “Our car park management systems are in place to help ensure availability of parking spaces for customers, and it’s therefore disappointing when we learn that someone has wrongfully received a parking charge notice.

“We can confirm that the charge for this motorist has been cancelled, and in the extremely unfortunate event that a volunteer receives a parking charge, we would encourage them to get in touch with Parkingeye directly via the appeals process and explain their situation. Charges can be investigated and if necessary, cancelled, as swiftly as possible.”