An insurance worker who paid £10 to park in Wimbledon was given a £60 fine after her ticket ‘curled up’ on her window.

Debbie King, of Prince of Wales Road, Sutton, had parked in Hartfield Road car park on June 7 and purchased a £10 ticket.

After returning within her paid for time, she was "horrified" to discover a parking ticket for £60 citing a ‘failure to correctly display ticket’.

She said: "To my horror I saw the ticket I had purchased had curled over and all the required information was obscured.

"I can only assume, due to the absolute torrential rain on that morning, the ticket got wet in the walk from the ticket machine to my car and the heat of the car then made the ticket curl over."

Mrs King assumed that after presenting her valid ticket all would be forgiven and that Merton Council would accept she had paid the appropriate amount and quash the ticket.

Instead, the council upheld the ticket saying the onus was on the driver to ensure any ticket is displayed clearly.

Mrs King said: "I can understand the logic behind the issuing of the penalty notice - the ticket issuing officer did not know the ticket was valid.

"However, how can I be responsible for the potentially substandard paper in the ticket machine used by the council?

"I placed the ticket as requested - how am I to know, minutes or hours later the paper would curl up?

"Sometimes a little discretion on the part of Merton Council would go a long way in the days when bureaucracy seems to have gone mad."

In a letter to Mrs King - who eventually paid £30 by settling the ticket early - Merton Council said while it accepted she had not intended to park in "contravention" the ticket had been "correctly issued" and there were "no grounds" to cancel the charge.

It continued: "In future you should check the visibility of your ticket or permit after closing your car doors and before walking away from the vehicle."

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