Parking warden pounces to slam mum with £50 fine when she dozes in car
HAVING just dropped off her daughter at the gym after another busy day, Sue Hall thought she would take the chance to have a well deserved rest.
She sat back in her car, closed her eyes and drifted off into a light slumber.
But the 51-year-old was rudely awoken to find a parking warden had just stuck a parking fine ticket on her windscreen.
Now the furious college teacher is appealing against the £50 fine and asking why the warden did not wake up her to warn her she needed another ticket.
Sue had parked at The Quays in Southampton while waiting for her daughter, Lucy, 15, and a friend to go to the gym.
She bought a £2 ticket for an hour’s parking and sat in the car as she waited.
She dozed off, but woke with a start as the attendant doled out the fine just five minutes after her ticket ran out.
Sue, who works as a teacher at Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, said: “I was really angry.
“I was woken up when he slapped on the ticket and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ “He didn’t wake me up – he just slapped on the ticket.
“I said, ‘Why didn’t you wake me up?’ and he said, ‘I don’t know if I noticed you’.”
Sue, who lives in Shirley, said she has appealed against the £50 ticket from Southampton City Council.
She accepts that she was five minutes over her allotted time but believes the attendant should have woken her up rather than giving her a ticket.
She added: “I don’t know if they have a quota of tickets to fill.
“I do everything to avoid getting a ticket because I can’t stand getting them.”
A city council spokesman said the authority would not comment on individual cases but insisted wardens follow strict rules when issuing fines.
The spokesman added: “Our parking enforcement officers follow a strict code of conduct and instructions when issuing penalty charge notices for parking violations.
“A challenge can be made by any recipient who feels that a notice has been served incorrectly.”
This is not the first time a disgruntled motorist has taken on the council after receiving a ticket.
Company director Adrian Lewis, 63, won an appeal against a £50 ticket which was given after he bought a second pay-and-display ticket to use a car park with a maximum two-hour stay.
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