Woman left shocked after being hit with €5400 fine for two hours parking

"I just couldn't fathom that they had taken that money."

Yaditi Kava was shopping with her two daughters when she parked at a multi-storey car park in Slough.

The mother told the BBC that she paid at the exit barrier rather than at the pay station.

She was left stunned when she £4,586 (€5,365) was taken out of her bank account rather than the £4.50 the parking should have cost.

Yaditi mistook the ‘4,5’ on the machine for £4.50, but later received a message informing her that £4,586 was taken from her account.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “I tapped my contactless card, then a message displayed saying I needed to enter my PIN.

“I was in a rush, the girls were getting tired, and I did not see the number on the small card machine.

“The big display showed '4,5', so I thought it was £4.50,” she told them.

“To my shock, I saw that they had deducted not £4.50 but £4,586 from my account.

“It was surreal - I just couldn't fathom that they had taken that money," she added.

The following week, the manager told the 39-year-old that the machine had not been faulty.

“He made a receipt on 19 May and assured me I would see that money in my account within 2-3 working days,” she explained.

Three weeks later, she still had not received a refund.

“I'm going through a divorce at the moment and had saved that money to pay legal fees.

“I was going to call off my daughter's birthday party, it was a lot of stress,” said Yaditi.

After contacting the BBC’s consumer rights programme, the JVS show, the company behind the car park, Savilles, labelled it an 'isolated incident'.