A PRIVATE parking company that admitted “a few of its employees” falsified photograph time stamps in order to dish out fines is being investigated by police.

And now two motorists in Worcester - Steve James and Sarah Gashi – plan to take their complaints to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud centre.

The centre says it has received a report that “a recordable fraud has occurred” and is probing UK Parking Control over the claims.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police is leading work to assess the allegations while the British Parking Association is also investigating the national parking firm.

Mr James, 23, of St Peter’s, Worcester, believes the time stamp on a photograph used as evidence to fine him in Diglis last December was doctored and says he has CCTV evidence to prove he was working in Tesco at the time.

His claims mirror those of Rushwick mum Sarah Gashi, who is adamant the times on photographs of her car in Diglis in February were tampered with in order to issue a penalty notice. She claims she was in Powick with her parents at the time her car was apparently photographed in Diglis.

The duo have been inspired to take their cases to Action Fraud after seeing the photograph tampering scandal exposed in the media.

UK Parking Control made a public admission earlier this month, which relates to cases in Lincoln and does not refer to Worcester car parks, that time stamps had been altered.

The statement read: “We regret to confirm that a limited number of pictures of vehicles, at a small number of car parks, have had their time stamp altered by a few of our employees to make it appear as though the vehicles had over-stayed when this was not the case.

“We have taken this issue extremely seriously and will refund all potentially affected parking charges for over-stays issued by these employees.”