Excel Parking: Sheffield firm pursues driver for SIX years over wrongly-issued £100 demands
A Sheffield parking firm pursued a driver for SIX years - before caving in when she fought back.
Excel Parking slapped two £100 demands on Katherine Blessan’s car over two days in November 2018 at Beeley Street in the city centre.
It then sent letters warning of debt collectors, legal action and increased costs.
Katherine said she ignored them because her employer, Kip McGrath, had informed the company she was on a staff parking approved list, which meant the tickets were invalid.
In fact, the tutoring firm sent a list which included her number plate to Excel twice - in April and September 2018.
For the next few years she parked at the same site and says she had no further issues.
She moved house.
But after a break of five-and-a-half years, in early August 2024, the Tinsley company revived the case.
The occupier of her old house noticed official letters piling up and passed them on.
Katherine said her boss managed to find the original emails to Excel which she sent to the firm as evidence of its mistakes.
But the firm continued its claims - demanding £267 per case, a total of £534 - and a court date was set.
Katherine prepared a defence and paid the court fees - but at that point Excel caved in, issuing two ‘notices of discontinuance’ on January 24.
Katherine said: “I gave Excel so many opportunities to discontinue their claim but they kept ignoring emails or sending generic ones. Then they discontinued on the exact same day I pay the court fees!
“I feel like Excel is wasting court time, building up cases and getting lawyers and judges involved and then pulling out at the last minute. I think it’s shocking.”
She says court fees of £606 were refunded by the court “almost immediately”.
Now, with the help of a ‘litigation friend’, she is preparing a counter claim against Excel for costs. She estimates she spent 40 hours working on her defence and hopes to claim hundreds of pounds from the firm.
She added: “I think it’s worth doing, none of this should have happened.
“A lot of the time people give in because they don’t want it hanging over them. I’m fighting for all the people who paid but didn’t have to.”
We asked Excel Parking why it issued the £100 demands and why it revived the case after five-and-a-half-years.
We also asked why it continued despite the evidence and why it discontinued on the day Katherine paid her court fees.
The company did not respond to The Star.