Valet firm apologises for landing customer with fine

A holiday maker who was fined after an airport valet parking firm left his BMW in a bus stop received an apology from the firm whose driver parked it illegally because he was hungry.

Graeme Philpot left the car with Drivefly at Luton Airport on August 30 to return on September 9.

But he was issued a £70 fine for being ‘stopped on a restricted bus stop’ on September 7. 

The company admitted its driver was at fault and would be disciplined, promising Mr Philpot full compensation, according to the BBC.

It said this kind of incident had never happened and will not again in the future.

Mr Philpot, who lives in Buckingham, said he got the parking ticket from Luton Borough Council after picking up his car when he returned from holiday.

It came with photographs of his car parked in Chapel Street, Luton, at 5:45pm on September 7.

Despite not checking the mileage when he picked up his car, he said he ‘knew something wasn’t right’ when he realised ‘all the pre-set radio stations had been changed’.

Despite leaving the car with a valet service at the airport, Mr Philpot’s car ended up miles away in a bus stop when the driver got hungry

Bedfordshire Police is investigating the ‘unauthorised taking of a vehicle between 15:00 BST on 30 August and 00:30 BST on 9 September’.

Drivefly operations director Naushad Hameed said the driver parked in the bus stop to buy some food.

‘The driver was hungry and without telling anybody stopped and bought some food,’ he said.

‘He had no authorisation to do this. Our drivers have no authority to use clients’ cars in this way.

‘We have apologised. We have told the client he will get a full refund, we will pay the fine and give him a discount for future use of our service.’