Customers of Northampton supermarket are being wrongly handed parking fines due to faulty cameras

The ANPR camera fault is penalising people who drive into the Tesco Mereway car park from the East Hunsbury end and leave at the Mereway roundabout, then pass through the site in the opposite direction later the same day.

It has resulted in numerous residents of East Hunsbury receiving payment demands through their letterboxes from either Tesco or parking company Highview Parking that wrongly allege customers have overstayed by several hours. The letters urge people to pay a fine quickly or the amount will rise to £70.

One victim of the errors, Katie Ball, said she was particularly annoyed as she had spent more than £200 at Tesco on the day she clocked up the fine.

She said: "I was furious. The first journey was to get £50 of petrol and the one later that day was to get my weekly shop, which was more than £150.

"They said I'd been there eight hours. I was gobsmacked. I live in East Hunsbury so why would I park there all day?

"There's a lot of people talking about a boycott."

Katie said she knows of at least nine others who have been fined in error for the same reason, with several people also posting about similar injustices at the supermarket on the East Hunsbury Facebook group.

Katie had her own fine cancelled after complaining directly to store bosses.

But management of the car park has since been handed over to Highview Parking, which has been less generous.

It is understood that several customers have had to pay up after being unable to convince Highview of its mistake.

Some customers have been told that trees obscuring the cameras were to blame, but Tesco told the Chron it was still investigating.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We operate parking controls at our Northampton South Extra store to ensure adequate parking for all our customers.

"We are looking into these reports and will get in touch directly with the customers who have raised concerns.”