Motorists who pay to use a city's main car park on their debit cards have just been charged for parking there months ago.

The fees for parking at Churchill Square Shopping Centre in Brighton were only deducted from their accounts the day before New Year's Eve.

National Car Parks, which is in charge of parking at the shopping mall, has blamed a computer software fault.

Although the NCP computer recorded the transactions, it did not forward them to customers' banks for payment.

One Brighton businessman, who received a statement from his bank yesterday, said money had been taken for parking at the complex as long ago as July.

The 47-year-old, who does not want to be named, said the statement contained six payments to NCP totalling £23.70.

He said: "I went to Churchill Square and was told it was down to a software fault. I phoned NCP's head office and spoke to its customer services manager.

"She said she had already had quite a few calls about it from other customers in Brighton.

"I don't know if there is a time limit beyond which unclaimed direct debits cannot be paid but I shall check with my bank."

An NCP spokeswoman confirmed the problem was caused by a computer software fault but was unable to say how many customers had been affected.

She said: "We identified the problem in October and the machine was fixed immediately.

"Because we took extreme care in processing the outstanding payments, it has taken some time for them to go through our customers' accounts.

"We are sorry about the timing of the money leaving the accounts over Christmas."

A spokesman for Abbey said debit and credit card payments were regulated by the Visa organisation.

He said: "We have checked and there is no time limit on payments authorised by the card holder."

Friday January 02, 2004