Yaditi Kava Accidentally Charged £4,586 at Slough Car Park

SLOUGH – 7 June 2025 – A mother was left in complete shock after she was wrongly charged £4,586 for a two-hour parking session at the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre’s multi-storey car park in Slough.

Yaditi Kava, 39, said the ordeal began on Friday, 16 May, after she spent the evening shopping and dining with her two young daughters.

When Ms. Kava returned to the car park, the indoor payment machines had already closed for the day. She decided to pay at the exit barrier instead.

“I tapped my card, it asked for my PIN. I didn’t think twice,” she recalled. “The big display showed ‘4,5’, so I assumed it meant £4.50.”

But once the barrier lifted, her phone buzzed with a bank alert — and to her horror, it showed £4,586 had been deducted from her account.

“It was surreal,” said Ms. Kava. “I couldn’t process it. It was just shocking.”

She returned to the shopping centre the following Monday and spoke to the manager, who confirmed it was caused by a faulty payment machine. He issued a manual receipt on 19 May and promised the refund would arrive in 2-3 working days.

However, three weeks passed and the refund still hadn’t appeared.

At the time, Ms. Kava was already under pressure, dealing with a divorce and had been saving that money for legal expenses and her daughter’s birthday party.

“I was considering cancelling everything. The stress was too much,” she said.

Feeling helpless, she contacted BBC Three Counties’ JVS Show, hosted by Jonathan Vernon-Smith.

“One call from Jonathan, and the next day, the money was back in my account,” she shared. The full refund was processed and returned to her on Saturday, 7 June.

Savills, which manages the car park, called it an “isolated incident” and said they are investigating the system to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“We’ve been in regular contact with the customer and have processed the full refund,” a spokesperson said.

This shocking incident is a reminder for all drivers to double-check payment screens — even when in a rush.