THE bitter row in which an unsatisfied customer staged a protest in his digger at insurance giant Aviva’s York head quarters continues.

Self-employed plant hire operator Paul Parvin, of Sessay, near Thirsk, has rejected the Financial Ombudsman Service’s decision in his case.

He has been fighting over the way his claim has been handled since an articulated lorry hit his digger in January 2008.

In April, Mr Parvin parked his digger, blocking the car park to Aviva’s Monks Cross where 180 employees work, and in December sat in a deckchair with a placard for several hours near the entrance to Aviva’s Rougier Street building.

The FOS said in its final decision that it would not uphold Mr Parvin’s complaint against Aviva because Mr Parvin had chosen to deal directly with the third party’s insurers, which paid for repairs to the vehicle, which were not done properly.

But Mr Parvin said that when he contacted Aviva, then known as Norwich Union, he was told it was a matter for the liable party’s insurance company to deal with.

Mr Parvin previously agreed a settlement that Aviva would write off the vehicle and pay him £18,840 as an interim payment, with a further £12,560 to be paid when they picked up the vehicle for salvage.

But Mr Parvin now fears he will not be paid the £12,560 and he has written to the FOS to say he wants Aviva to agree a final figure with him before he hands over the vehicle.

He said: “They want to take it away and then inspect it to ensure it’s still in the same state as it was after the accident. We’re going back three years and three months and the engineer’s initial inspection was vague. They did not record the damage that was done underneath. They can say anything they want and they will use that to throw it back at me.

“I have never had an insurance claim that has ever worked. If I claim for storm damage, it’s the wrong kind of storm. If my tools are stolen, they’re the wrong kind of tools.”

A spokesperson for the FOS said if a customer rejected a final decision, they will not get involved any further, but the consumer could still take the matter to court.

A spokesperson from Aviva said: “We believe we have done all we can for Mr Parvin. When his digger was damaged he opted to go direct to a third-party insurer for repairs.

“We have already sent him an initial payment and we will send another once we have collected the written-off digger. An independent adjudicator at the Financial Ombudsman Service has said it’s fair and reasonable. I think we have done everything that we can.”