October 15, 2018 4.29 pm This story is over 65 months old

Parking warden fired for bragging on social media

She posted about fines she had dished out
Zoe Brunt previously worked as a bouncer at The Original Bierkeller in Lincoln.

A former parking warden in Louth was fired over social media ‘jokes’ made about fines she had issued, but she has argued she was not made aware she had to be “social media silent”.

Zoe Brunt, 44, who previously worked as a bouncer at The Original Bierkeller in Lincoln, posted on social media about parking tickets she had dished out, including an encounter with an off-duty nurse who was parked in a disabled bay.

She was reportedly suspended before changing her Facebook profile showing she had left her position at parking firm APCOA in Louth.

The body builder came under fire in the national press and after her social media posts were investigated and she then lost her job on last Wednesday (October 10).

According to reports she boasted to her Facebook friends about catching out a drainage worker in Mabletherpe, while one of those hit with a fine described her as the nation’s most ‘evil’ traffic warden.

She also posted a picture of her own car parked on double yellow lines.

She also posted a picture of her own car parked on double yellow lines and later said she was dropping someone off as everyone in Lincolnshire is “entitled to five minutes on single yellow lines and double yellow lines”.

She reportedly said her posts were just jokes and she knew there were social media rules at her company, but did not realise she had to be ‘media silent’.

After the recent press coverage Zoe took to social media to defend herself as she felt facts had been “twisted to suit the story”.

In a Facebook post on October 12, Zoe defended herself about each individual case before saying: “Out of the hundreds of PCNs (penalty charge notices) I issued on behalf of the council and APCOA I posted ‘privately’ on Facebook about a few of them as ‘in my opinion’ it brought a little light on what CEOs (civil enforcement officers) go through.”

The post continued: “My posts regarding helping people were not included in the press ‘no surprise there’. There were so many times where I never issued PCNs to drivers for many different reasons. Whether it was due to genuine people in trouble or being able to move them on before issuing.

“There were many times where I performed beyond my role as a CEO. For instance, saving a little girl and a man (clearly on drugs) from being run over, endangering my own life. Stopping four-way traffic for a stuck HGV driver who was clearly in distress, helping an elderly man having a heart attack and attending to an unconscious drug addict in the street.

“CEOs do not have to be first aid trained and are advised by the council to not attend to such case but to carry on with ‘the job’ purely issuing PCNs. It is not in my nature to walk past incidents like those and for that reason I could have been sacked a long time ago.”

Regarding APCOA, she added: “The job was good, despite the reputation. APCOA were a good company to work for, however they are contracted by the council and so the council have the say as to what CEOs can and can’t do.

“I was aware of the social media contract, however I was not aware we were meant to be social media silent. My ex co-workers posted very similar things, some were far far worse than what I had posted and would been classed as gross misconduct towards the council and APCOA.”