UKPC has admitted that some of its employees have been doctoring photos and handing over illegitimate fines to motorists in Lincoln and across the country.
The Lincolnite was the first to reveal the issue, with several locals coming forward about fines they have been issued at the car park operated by the company at Tritton Retail Park in the city.
A former warden working for the company also spoke out about the practice of altering timestamps in order to make it look like motorists overstayed in the car park and fine them.
After not responding to comment requests and issuing vague statements, UKPC has finally spoken about what happened.
A UKPC spokesperson said: “We regret to confirm that a limited number of pictures of vehicles, at a small number of car parks, have had their timestamp altered by a few of our employees to make it appear as though the vehicles had over-stayed when this was not the case.
“We have taken this issue extremely seriously and decided that even though a number of the relevant parking charges are likely to have been legitimately issued, we will refund all potentially affected parking charges for over-stays issued by these employees, to ensure that there is no room for error.
“The repayments will be refunded automatically to drivers’ bank accounts over the next few days. Disciplinary action is in progress in relation to the relevant employees and therefore our solicitors inform us that we are unable to comment further in that regard.
“We have never before had a problem of this nature, which runs contrary to the normally high standards of our business and the rigorous training of all our staff. We have taken steps to ensure that no further incidents of this nature can occur in the future.”
The British Parking Association also confirmed it is currently investigating allegations of evidence tampering by parking operator UK Parking Control.