Nope. We were parked up for around 2-3 hours and I had to pay around £12 so family definitely didn't pay in advance.

It will have matched your ticket to the reg no.

Have you considered the possibility that it's because you are that awesome?

I wish I was Rusty, but I'm not.

Tom, please explain that to me?

Actually, no I just figured it out:

- ticket I take will have a serial number or something
- camera could take a pic of the reg and match it to the ticket that's printed out
- I pay the ticket in the machine, which updates the database
- ANPR recognises my plate, checks the database which states I've paid, and hence lifts the barrier.

Frikkin' awesome if that's what happened!

That's exactly what happens. At least, it's supposed to. Sometimes it goes a bit wrong and you have to press the help button...

I know that happens at East Midlands Airport (long term parking).
I prepaid online and gave them my reg number.
When I arrived, the camera at the gate recognised my reg and let me in. A week later when I returned, I dust drove up to the barrier, the camera recognised the reg again and let me back out. No ticket machine needed at all.

Same happened to me at Bristol last week. They're probably all run by the same company anyway!

Actually, not quite the same, I had to take a ticket.