A disgruntled motorist has claimed victory after a private parking enforcer tried to make him cough up £90 for using a car park twice in one day.

Kevin Finegan, from Morden, received a demand for payment from Civil Enforcement Ltd on December 21, a Liverpool-based firm which monitors the Co-op supermarket’s car park in Grand Drive, Raynes Park.

The company claimed he had parked there for over five hours, when in fact they had wrongly logged two separate visits several hours apart on the same day.

But, after Mr Finegan complained to the Co-op’s head office and threatened never to shop there again, he received a letter from Civil Enforcement to confirm his parking fine had been quashed.

He said: “This is clearly a widespread practice from so called 'car park operators' who are largely made up of the former car clamping companies who had to change their business after car clamping on private land was made illegal.

“Even if the vehicle had overstayed, they still cannot make a legally enforceable demand for money as it is a "free parking for 2 hours" car park and so they have suffered no financial loss.”

The Co-op also responded by email to Mr Finegan to confirm the ticket would be cancelled, despite being told by members of staff at the branch that control of the car park is nothing to do with them.

A spokesperson for The Co-operative Food said: “Due to technical problems, a parking charge notice was issued to Mr Finegan in error. We have cancelled the notice, and have apologised to him for any inconvenience.

“Parking restrictions at our stores are in response to complaints from customers, who can otherwise have difficulty parking as a significant number of drivers abuse our car parks by parking for lengthy periods, or even all day.

“Civil Enforcement Limited operates the car park at our Grand Drive store on behalf of The Co-Operative, and we have an appeals procedure for anyone who feels a parking charge has been issued unfairly or in error.”