A CAR parking crusader has won her 10-month battle against a ticket she was given for parking on Friar Street.

Not only has Ginny Stenson been told that she does not have to pay the £30 fine but a judge at Worcester Crown Court also ruled that the wording on the restricted parking sign was unlawful.

The 52-year-old secretary was incensed when she came back from a shopping trip to find she had been given a ticket for staying too long in the designated "45 minutes only" bays.

"I decided I wasn't going to pay it," she said. "It wasn't because I thought the sign was illegal. I just thought the wording was very ambiguous and that it was displayed in the wrong place, where it was difficult to see if you were parking there."

When she refused to pay the fine Ginny, who is married to Bob, 54, was taken to Worcester Magistrates Court where she was convicted in her absence and fined £200.

"I thought it was just an early hearing, the letter said my presence wasn't necessary but they heard the case and convicted me.

"So, I had to appeal against that decision. And when I won the appeal my case was re-opened at the crown court," she said.

All through her battle the mum-of-three, of Nuffield Close, St John's, has represented herself in court.

"I was there all day. It was really nerve racking," she said.

But when the judge said her case had been quashed she was delighted.

"He said that the wording on the sign was not a variant that was accepted under the Highways Act and was therefore illegal," she said.

"I was delighted to win but it was quite an ordeal - I've never been inside a court before.

"I want to let people know the result because there must have been hundreds of people fined for parking there but the signs are illegal and shouldn't be there."

Worcester City Council principal engineer Andy Walford said that, in the light of the court decision, officials would investigate the Friar Street sign, which was in what the council called an "historic core zone".

"This is the first I've heard about this, but we'll look at what we've done wrong, if we have done anything wrong, and put that sign right," he said.