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Regulators have launched an investigation after a parking attendant was caught handing out a 鈥渇raudulent鈥� 聽ticket in a back-lane in Cardiff.

CCTV footage seen by X-Ray shows the man putting up a temporary no-parking sign, taking a photograph of a car in front of it, and then taking the sign away.

The driver got a 拢100 penalty notice 鈥� even though there had been nothing to indicate that parking wasn鈥檛 allowed in the lane.

A lawyer who鈥檚 an expert in parking law said the man was acting 鈥渇raudulently鈥�.

聽Will Hurley, chief executive of the parking regulator, the IPC, told X-Ray: 鈥淚t鈥檚 completely wrong and it should not happen.鈥�

The ticket was issues by former Welsh boxing champion turned parking entrepreneur Peter Ahmed 鈥� who runs a car park near Curran Embankment, where the ticket was handed out.

The parking charge notice was given to Kelly Venables from Wenvoe near Cardiff, after she had been in the city with her family during the Christmas holidays.聽 She had parked in the lane before because there were was nothing to indicate you couldn鈥檛 park there.

Two weeks later she got the Parking Charge Notice in the post.聽 She told X-Ray: 鈥淭here was a photograph of my car with a big sign behind it.鈥�

鈥淚 knew that sign wasn't there, there was no way you could miss that sign. And there was absolutely no way I was paying it, there was no way I was just going to let it lie.鈥�

When she found footage on a nearby CCTV Camera she saw that Mr Ahmed had put up the sign just so he could take a picture of her car and issue the penalty notice.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe that somebody can be quite so dishonest, I can鈥檛 believe that practices like that are allowed by supposedly regulated car parking firms,鈥� she said.

UK Car Park Management Ltd. 鈥� who issued the penalty notice - run a 鈥渟elf-ticketing鈥� scheme. This allows a landowner or agent who signs a code of conduct to download an app on to their phone and then send details of illegally parked cars on to the company. UK CPM gets the owners鈥� details from the DVLA and issues a parking charge to the driver, and the agent gets 拢10 for every ticket they issue.

Peter Ahmed had signed up to this scheme 鈥� but has had his account suspended after X-Ray uncovered the way he had issued the penalty notice.

Mr Ahmed told the programme that he didn't have enough signs so had used a "mobile sign" until new supplies arrived. He said he thought he was within his rights to do this because there were other signs in the area. Mr Ahmed said he now realised this wasn鈥檛 acceptable and apologised.

UK CPM say they have launched their own investigation and say they cancelled the penalty notice as soon as they became aware of what had happened.

Mr Hurley told X-Ray: 鈥淲e will now look into it and what went wrong and when we get to the bottom of that we will be able to look and see what needs to happen moving forward.鈥�

鈥淏ut the fact that this happened in the first place indicates that something needs to be done to ensure this does not happen again.鈥�

The DVLA say they have taken 鈥渋mmediate action鈥� alongside the IPC investigate 鈥渢he specific incident and also how UKCPM manages its self-ticketing arrangements鈥�.

UK Car Park Management say they believe this was an isolated incident. Mr Hurley added:聽 鈥淭here's a good indication that it is a one off incident and it's isolated. However, we will look at it with an open mind.鈥�

Cardiff-based parking law expert Sarah Garner told X-Ray:聽 鈥淚n my opinion he is he is engineering that situation, he's receiving monies off the back of deceiving the parking management company which, in essence that's fraud, it's a fraudulent act.鈥�

A mobile phone repair shop in Cardiff is rapidly building a reputation they won鈥檛 be able to fix.

X-Ray has been contacted by a number of customers of AW Communications, a repair shop in the Roath area of the city.

Out of 97 reviews of AW Communications seen by X-Ray - 92 gave just ONE star, all detailing similar experiences with the company.

Caroline Seaman, a receptionist from Cardiff went to the store in November 2017 after cracking her phone screen. She was told it would cost 拢150 to repair, with the money needing to be paid up front.

Caroline then had second thoughts and asked for her phone back, but was told that it was too late. She says the shop claimed they had already put her phone in a vice and taking it out at this stage would break it, leaving her with no choice but to pay.

Caroline said: 鈥淚t was like daylight robbery in a way, sort of being mugged but in a shop.鈥�

She was told her phone would be ready within five to ten days, but it actually took five weeks and was still broken when Caroline got it back.

Emma Pengelly, an administrator at Cardiff University, took her phone into AW Communications this January after experiencing charging problems. She was told it would take up to three days to repair. Instead, it took three weeks of constant chasing to get her phone returned and it now had a broken touchscreen.

Emma said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 basically in a worse state than it was when I took it in there.鈥�

Rimante Bivainyte, a journalism student from Lithuania, took her laptop to AW Communications last September when the touchscreen on it stopped working. She was told it would take three days to repair. Instead, Rimante had to wait four months to get her laptop back. The touchscreen still didn鈥檛 work and she found further problems that hadn鈥檛 been there before she took it to the company.聽

AW Communications have refused to give Caroline, Emma and Rimante their money back.

Professor Margaret Griffiths, a retired Professor of Consumer Law, said: 鈥淭he goods have not been handed back on time and equally they have not been repaired properly, so in that situation the consumer would be entitled to have them repaired again at the shop鈥檚 expense or a refund to allow them to have it done elsewhere.鈥�

AW Communications told X-Ray that they apologise to all their customers who feel they have been mistreated. They say they are now working to improve the business, but they didn鈥檛 say anything about refunding the customers.