A MUM was issued with a parking fine even though she had bought a ticket - and has the evidence to prove it.

Highview Parking issued the fine when the woman parked at Gala Bingo in Worcester on Valentine's Day.

The family has already appealed against the fine, branding it 'extortionate' and the information the company used to generate the penalty charge 'inaccurate'.

The charge notice, which contains photographs of the vehicle, makes a demand for £85 or £50 if payment is received by tomorrow (Friday, March 6).

The notice, issued on February 20, says the car was parked at Gala Bingo between 12.38pm and 3.35pm on Saturday, February 14 but that "we do not have evidence that a sufficient parking payment was made to cover the full duration of the visit".

However, the Worcester News has been shown a copy of the pay and display ticket (pictured) she bought on the day which proves she paid to park there between 12.40pm and 4.40pm, covering her stay.

The father of the woman's boyfriend (the boyfriend being the registered keeper of the vehicle), who declined to be named, said he had urged her to keep the ticket as evidence after she received two previous penalty charges at the same car park.

The family are now hoping to be reimbursed for those penalty charges as well as the latest one.

He wrote to Highview Parking: "This is the third parking charge we have received on the Gala Bingo car park, on the first two occasions we could not find the parking ticket but she was adamant she had paid and had not overstayed.

"As a result she kept all subsequent parking tickets. It is a requirement to enter the vehicle's registration number on purchasing the ticket. However, it is not reproduced on the actual ticket.

"My concerns are that the charge notice is relying on inaccurate evidence obtained by a camera that clearly is not linked to the ticket machine or that the camera evidence is not checked against the ticket machine.

"There is also a latent threat to impose a debt collection charge of £40 at the expiration of 28 days, what is this based on?

"I wonder how many other people have suffered a similar fate?

"The charges levied are extortionate and do not represent the actual cost of recovering excess charges, i.e. the actual period of time overstayed plus an administration cost to recover that amount."

Neither Highview Parking nor Gala Bingo had returned with a comment by the time of the deadline given by the Worcester News.