SOUTHEND Council have apologised to the family of a dead man after being branded “heartless” for pursuing parking fines against him.

Daniel Cowan, Labour leader of the council, has sent his sympathies to the family of Shaun Jager on behalf of the council after his father, Barry Jager, slammed the council for not immediately rescinding the fines.

According to the BBC, Shaun, 55, collapsed on Glenhurst Road shortly after parking his van in March before being rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and later died.

Barry claimed Shaun could not remember where he had parked his van and when he found it three days later it has three penalty charge notices on the windscreen.

The dad, from Benfleet, wrote to Southend Council to explain the situation but claims he was ordered to pay two of the three charges.

Speaking to the BBC, he labelled the council as “heartless” for not immediately rescinding the fines.

Southend Council has since apologised to Barry and confirmed all three parking charges have been dismissed.

“We extend our sympathies to Mr Jager during this difficult time and I apologise for the distress caused by this process,” said council leader Mr Cowan.

“Our appeals process does consider medical and compassionate grounds, and we cancelled the first two penalty charge notices (PCNs) on that basis.

“The third PCN unfortunately progressed through the system as we had no further communication.

“Mr Jager later informed us of his son’s passing, and the third PCN has now been cancelled.

“Southend Council’s appeals process is fair and compassionate, as demonstrated by the first two PCNs being cancelled, however the regrettable situation with the third PCN shows us that there is room for improvement, and we will review internally what we could have done differently.

“I would like to once more offer my apologies and condolences to Mr Jager.”

Before the fines were rescinded, Barry told the BBC: “I think it’s heartless.

“He’s a homeless person with stage four cancer, and they still pursue him before he died and after he’s died.

“They will not let up – they’re just like wolves.”