A dad says he has been left "upset" after bailiffs turned up at his door - over a parking fine he had no knowledge of."

Wilson Chowdhry, 50, has hit out over the ordeal, which followed a family day out in Rochester, Kent, on May 8 last year.

The frustrated dad-of-three claims hundreds of cars were parked along the town's Esplanade and after finding a space, him and his wife spoke to locals and a traffic officer - who said it was free to park in the space.

After enjoying their day out the family returned to their hometown of Chigwell, Essex and thought nothing of it.

Mr Chowdhry says it then came as a shock to him when a year later, on May 7, 2024, he discovered bailiffs at the door pursuing a parking ticket he had heard "nothing" about."

He claims there are "systemic failures" with the postal service in his area and he had not received a single penalty fine or letter through his door in the last year."

After paying more than £500 to the bailiffs he submitted an appeal providing evidence of his postal issues - including press clippings detailing a range of complaints from others about the service.

He said: "When the bailiffs arrived, I felt anger and upset – it's something we've raised again and again with Royal Mail."

"My young daughters didn't know what was going on and started crying."

"There's a lot of essential items you can buy with that money but to have to pay that for a parking charge you never knew about – it was painful and a moment of anguish."

Medway Council said that, because it did not receive payment for the parking penalty, it sent four letters over a six-month period but did not receive a response.

As a result, it was passed to an enforcement agency in December last year.

After bailiffs took payment from the family, Mr Chowdhry submitted an "Out of Time' application to the court to ask for more time to challenge the ticket."

Although the council would have challenged this application, an "administrative error" delayed its response - and the court made a decision to revoke the bailiff charges."

A civil court decided on July 23 that Mr Chowdhry would only need to pay the £70 original fine and that Medway Council should process a refund for the difference.

But to his surprise, on October 7, the dad received a letter mdated September 25 from Medway Council, informing him he would need to pay another £70 penalty relating to the incident.

Having already paid £500, he called the council and queried the letter - asking the council officer to check the system.

It is understood the council will now refund £424, of which £114 will be paid by Medway Council, with a further £310 due to be refunded from the enforcement agency.

However, dad-of-three Mr Chowdhry says there were multiple miscommunications about whether he had to pay the £70 fine on top of this.

He said: "Why am I not being given direct communication with somebody so I can get this rectified expediently considering I've been out of pocket now since May."

"I'd like to get my money back and I'd like to see the system change, whether it's a software update or some sort of administrative changes, protocol change – something that prevents other people from going through the same process as I have."

"This devious notice to owner could have resulted in me paying additional costs despite already paying a substantial amount to bailiffs under duress through lack of knowledge of a penalty fine."

"A blatant incorrectly applied additional charge seems like an error too much, it makes me angry and upset."

While Wilson concedes it's possible he may have made a mistake with his parking on his visit to Rochester last year, he says he would have dealt with this by paying the original £70 had he known about it.

He added: "The courts have decided in our favour and these extended delays are quite despicable – I've been as patient as I can be but I'm at my wits end."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We take the delivery of mail very seriously and work to ensure all items are delivered on time."

"We have taken strides to improve our service in Chigwell and nationally. Currently, 93.5% of First Class letters arrive within two days."

"If a customer is concerned about deliveries on their route we encourage them to contact us directly so we can investigate."

A Medway Council spokesperson said: "Penalty Charge Notices are issued when vehicles are parked illegally, which happened in this instance."

"However, we are sorry for the delay in responding to correspondence due to an administrative error. We have received a formal complaint in relation to this case, which we are reviewing."