Southend Airport parking firm apologies for scandal

9:30am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News

The team at Southend Airport Car Park The team at Southend Airport Car Park

A VALET parking company which charged customers for using free spaces at Southend Airport has vowed to make amends for its errors.

Southend Airport Car Park (SACP) was exposed by an Echo investigation that showed it had taken advantage of the airport’s offer of free long-stay parking, which ended last month, by block-booking the spaces.

Despite cars being parked for free just a stone’s throw from the terminal, customers were still charged up to £20 a day.

Lorraine Larman, SACP’s financial director, blamed the scandal on a rogue employee and offered to pay the airport for any losses.

In a letter to Alastair Welch, the airport’s managing director, she said: “Since this episode came to light, we have thoroughly investigated the incident and can confirm to you that the member of staff who was responsible has been dismissed.

“Our company policy has also been reviewed to ensure that all members of staff employed by SACP are absolutely clear as to the correct method of operating, at all and every level.

“If it is considered that there was any financial loss to the airport, due to the loss of parking revenue, we would be happy to reimburse the normal required parking fees.”

Comments(11)

DogsMessInLeigh says...
10:24am Sat 9 Mar 13

yeah ok Thanks.

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freecomment says...
10:30am Sat 9 Mar 13

Amazing how cooperative this company is after the event. Hard to believe that the managers didn't know about it all along. Would you trust a company that operates 'blind' like this lot seem to do. Sooner they are out of business the better. 'Cowboys' springs to mind!

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Nebs says...
10:33am Sat 9 Mar 13

Entrepreneurs. Good luck to them.

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Carnabackable says...
10:45am Sat 9 Mar 13

FRAUDSTERS, WHY DON'T THE AIRPORT JUST BIN 'EM

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emcee says...
1:28pm Sat 9 Mar 13

I can't help feeling that they only apologised because they were caught.
Unless the person dismissed was taking cash payments and not putting it through the books, there was nothing for him/her to gain from doing what they did. The only other people to gain would have been the company owners and, therefore, the said person would have been under instruction and was made a scapegoat.
Also the last paragraph of the article is a clever way of not really having to pay any compensaion to the airport as the parking spaces were free and the airport would have to jump through hoops to prove any loss.

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Carnabackable says...
2:34pm Sat 9 Mar 13

How many pictured are known to the Police ?

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Yachtsman says...
5:55pm Sat 9 Mar 13

Funny no mention by the company to refund money back to Customers who had their cars parked for free by them - Thought that when you booked wirh SACP you paid in advance by credit card or at least when you handed the car over to them.

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ontheblink says...
6:13pm Sat 9 Mar 13

How come they are allowed to use Southend Airport as par of their name when they have no connection with the airport?

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Joe Wildman-Clark says...
8:18pm Sat 9 Mar 13

ontheblink wrote:
How come they are allowed to use Southend Airport as par of their name when they have no connection with the airport?
It's not a registed trade mark, the airport should put signs up stating that SACP have zero to do with the airport, prehaps even go as far as having them banned from operating from airport grounds, and before jayman/shiebury_cycl
ist say its only leased you can ban people from land that is leased, you are the sitting tennant and are within your rights to restrict access to people.

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supershrimper says...
1:06pm Mon 11 Mar 13

If the airport was giving spaces away for free, I cannot see how they could have lost revenue by the company selling on the free spaces??

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Joe Wildman-Clark says...
3:48pm Mon 11 Mar 13

In my own opinion that I share with you to encourage healthy debate on this topic I see it as a cynical move to deflect any bad press that the issue might have for SACP, by stating they would pay back any losses knowing that the car park was actually free at the time make it sould like a responsable move however SACP still fail to actually say that Southend Airport were offering free car parking at the time.

Discuss?

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