Mr Matthews, a retired architect from Elloughton, East Yorkshire, said the family were paying £7.20 a week for a permit for two vehicles. He said letters were piling up at his daughter’s home because she was too ill to deal with them.
When the family discovered the first notice in July, they found the receipt showing the weekly permit had been paid.
‘They hid behind GDPR’
Mr Matthews said the family had receipts covering every date a notice was issued.
But APCOA said it would deal only with Ms Matthews because she was named on the V5 registration document.
Mr Matthews said: “They hid behind GDPR and said they could only speak to Kate. What they were saying was utter nonsense. They were just hiding behind it.”
He said Ms Matthews had neither driven the car nor paid for the parking and was its registered keeper because of her disability-related needs.
The family initially kept the dispute from Ms Matthews while she was critically ill, but told her when her condition improved.
Mr Matthews said his daughter was born with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and has been ill with it for about a decade.
EDS is a group of inherited conditions affecting connective tissue, which supports structures including the skin, joints, blood vessels and internal organs. Hypermobile EDS can cause loose, unstable joints and digestive problems.
Ms Matthews was first admitted to hospital in November last year with pancolitis – inflammation of the entire colon – and sepsis.
After treatment she was discharged around Christmas, but her symptoms quickly returned. Her consultant later arranged a planned admission and she has remained in hospital since March.
The three parking notices were issued between June 28 and Aug 13.
Mr Matthews claimed staff at the hospital security office told the family that wrongly issued notices were a regular occurrence.
In a joint statement, NHS Humber Health Partnership and APCOA apologised for the distress caused and confirmed all the charges had been cancelled. They said the usual appeals process had not been followed, but the family insisted it did challenge the notices correctly.