A man from Truro has spoken about how he won a two-year fight over a parking ticket he received at Custom House Quay.

Ian Tench, from Feock, received a ticket on the quay in April 2015 when he and his family went for a meal at the Harbour Lights restaurant.

Ian and his family returned to the car park before the allotted hour was up, but hadn't returned to their car because they had spotted a man Ian had believed was casing the car park.

The man turned out to be a parking attendant, by which time Ian's time had expired and the man gave him a ticket.

Ian said: "He got a bit aggressive, he said 'where's your parking ticket' so I said 'here' so he looked it and it was about three minutes over the time so he said 'you're over the time' and I said 'hang on a second, I've been standing here for ten minutes watching you casing the area' and I said 'I thought you were somebody who was stealing from cars.'"

Ian received a parking ticket anyway and soon received letters from parking companies and debt collection firms.

Ian said: "They kept on writing and saying that I'm either not communicating or I'm not paying the charge, and I said 'I made it clear to you several times that I've got no intentions of paying for the parking fine because I wasn't over the time when I first got there.'"

Ian eventually told the companies that he was prepared to go through the Magistrates Court in Truro to fight his corner, which is when correspondence stopped for almost exactly a year before he received another claim saying that he hadn't paid the fine.

He said: "I wrote a letter back saying that this is no doubt an anniversary present!"

Ian's stance didn't change and he repeated his desire to go to the Magistrates Court if necessary, before threatening to sue the companies if they sent him any more letters, and he has not heard anything from them since.

Ian's words of advice for people who face a similar situation was to stay strong if you believe you're in the right.

He said: “I would say if you feel as though you have got reasonable grounds then hold the line and say ‘I am not paying if you want the money then take me to court’ because they’re then going to have to pay for solicitors fees so they’re probably almost the same charge as the cost of the money they’re trying to recuperate and it was clear that they got fed up with me and they gave in.

Ian added that he always kept copies of the correspondence and he always sent his replies by recorded mail so there was never any doubt over what was communicated between both sides.

"If you’ve got a reasonable case then I think most reasonable people would uphold what you’re saying, that’s what I was basing mine on.

“I think how these people work is they hope to wear you down.”