Fuming driver slams Glasgow Airport NCP parking after £45 bill for five minutes

24 October 2023 , 14:05

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Christopher Gallacher had dropped off a passenger at Glasgow Airport on Saturday when he was charged £45 for five minutes (Image: Getty Images)

An Uber driver has slammed a parking firm after he was forced to shell out a staggering £45 for just five minutes in an airport car park.

Christopher Gallacher had dropped off a passenger on a trip to Glasgow Airport at 9.05am on Saturday morning, and paid the required £5 on his exit from the NCP car park as he was there for under 15 minutes.

The 46-year-old taxi driver, from Bishopbriggs in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, then took another drop-off job and arrived back at the airport at 10.06am. He waited for another job from the airport which came five minutes later, at 10.11am.

Christopher was shocked at the charge, which NCP have since refunded (Supplied)

Upon exiting the airport again in his rented Skoda, he paid for what he thought be a £5 fee - but the receipt told an entirely different story. Christopher had instead been charged £45, and his receipt shows that he entered the car park at 9.05am but didn't leave until 10.15am. This is despite him having taken multiple jobs outside the airport grounds during that time, reports Glasgow Live.

He told the newspaper: "I picked up at Meadow Park street at 9.20am and got another job after that from Gordon Street so I was nowhere near the car park. I wasn’t even in the vicinity and they still charged me £45. They registered me coming in after 9am but not me leaving several minutes later. They only registered me leaving over an hour later.

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"I tried to call to complain, I called fifteen times today (Monday) and nobody has answered from NCP. It's ridiculous and the service is shocking. I couldn’t believe it. I had to stop working to phone them and was on the call for 45 minutes before they finally answered and then it was some offshore number who said there was nothing they could do."

Christopher added that the firm "instantly" took £45 out of his account, and that the incident had "ruined" his weekend because he was "so frustrated and angry". "There could be a lot of people who have been overcharged at the weekend", he said. NCP has since issued a refund and apologised to Christopher. A spokesperson told Glasgow Live: "The £45 charge was wrongly attributed, and a refund has since been raised. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank the customer for bringing this matter to our attention."

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas