A man says he has been “made to feel like a criminal” by Merton Council after trying to get a refund for visitor parking permits for more than ten months.

Dylan White, from Colliers Wood, bought five visitor e-permits via the RingGo website which manages Merton Council’s parking services.

The permits were authorised for July 19 to July 23, 2021 and were bought for his daughter to use as she working at a ballet show in Clapham on those days.

The permits were £4 for each day, and Dylan thought that they would make her commute to the Italia Conti theatre easier rather than getting the train from her home in Guildford every day.

However, the cast fell ill with Covid and the event was cancelled two days before the start of the shows.

Dylan says he requested a refund for the parking permits on the RingGo website before the permits were active - but after months of waiting he claims he has still received no payment back into his account.

He said that Merton Council told him there was no trace of the request.

Dylan has been chasing the refund since October 2021 and has since formally complained to the Council about the way the situation was dealt with.

Dylan said: “I knew straight away I had to cancel these permits before they started, so I went straight on the RingGo website and requested a refund.

“I 100 per cent applied for the refund before they began.”

Dylan said that he filled out a “reason why” section on the RingGo form and explained that the show had been cancelled due to Covid.

He thought that the refund would show up on the credit card that was registered with RingGo and waited for it to appear, but says nothing came through.

He said: “I happened to be talking to Merton Council parking because I had to renew my residence permit and I said while I am on the phone with you here, I haven’t had a refund come through for some parking permits.

“The woman on the phone said she couldn’t find the request on the system but she gave me a number to quote to the Council, so I wrote in.

“From that point on I was treated as a criminal.

“I was treated like I was some scuzzy resident trying to fleece the council of £20.

“I’ve been seen as guilty of using the permits rather than them seeing me as genuinely trying to sort this.”

A spokesperson for Merton Council explained that it sought confirmation from RingGo about the refund, but it could not find any proof of the refund or record of the request.

Dylan insists that he submitted the form one or two days before the permits were active.

The Council said that there was no evidence that he did not use the permits, so Dylan forwarded an email from the theatre confirming that the shows had been cancelled.

Dylan was “furious’” with the way the request was handled and made a formal complaint about the response in February.

He says this was dismissed, and so instead he decided to push the complaint to stage two in March as he was not satisfied with the response, but this was closed without further action.

Dylan said: “It is only £20, but it is a matter of principle.

"I have pushed the complaint to stage two, but they have come back with the same argument.

“I can’t help that they can’t find it.”

A spokesperson for Merton Council said: “We understand that Mr White is disappointed that we have not issued a refund for his visitor e-voucher purchased in July 2021, however, our terms and conditions state that visitor e-voucher refunds will only be considered if the council is notified of the cancellation before the parking session starts.

“If a refund request is received subsequent to the parking start time, and in the absence of a message trail confirming the original request for a refund made to RingGo, it is impossible for us to determine whether the visitor e-voucher was used or not.”