A North East council have said they have found no evidence of a parking scam at two of their seaside car parks.

Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC) have confirmed enforcement officers found no evidence of fake signs or QR codes at the pay-and-display parking ticket machines at Seaton Carew.

They added a privately-operated car park at Navigation Point at Hartlepool Marina was also checked and showed no evidence of fake signs and QR codes either.

This comes after reports of a car parking scam taking place in Seaton Carew.

The council have said any potential victims of such a scam would need to approach their bank to obtain a refund.

A council spokesperson said: “Having been made aware of a potential issue, civil enforcement officers checked all of the Council’s pay and display parking ticket machines at Seaton Carew, as well as others in a privately-operated car park at Navigation Point at Hartlepool Marina.

“These checks have found no evidence of fake signs or QR codes on any of the machines.

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“As an authority, we offer people the option of paying for their parking online via the RingGo system as an alternative to cash. We are aware of reports from other parts of the country of websites pretending to be the official RingGo page.

“In an attempt to trick people into believing their websites are genuine, scammers apparently pay to have them appear as the first option on search engines. If the case reported locally involved such a scam, then the victim would have to approach their own bank to try to obtain a refund.

“Our advice to people would be that when paying online to park use only the official RingGo app which can be downloaded from trusted sources such as the App Store or the Google Play Store.”