A determined driver has won a five-year-long legal battle over a £1 parking ticket.
Nigel Richardson had gone to park up his vehicle in a car park in the town of Syston, Leicestershire, in 2020, but discovered he had no loose change on him.
He claimed the card payment system was not working so he instead used the mobile phone app, though he received no notification to say the transaction was successful.
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Mr Richardson wrote to car park operator Euro Car Parks to say he owed them £1 - and in response was handed a fine.
The motorist later received confirmation that the parking charge had in fact been successfully paid.
This was however, not the end of the ordeal, as he began receiving letters from debt collectors, including DCB Legal.
"DCB said they would see me in court, so I said, 'bring it on'," Mr Richardson told LeicestershireLive.
Despite various offers, including to drop the entire case, the driver was determined to receive compensation from the parking company, and the issue was brought to court.
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Nigel Richardson has won a five-year-long battle over a £1 parking ticket
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Though he settled at £200 compensation, Mr Richardson walked away with just £20 after paying court costs.
According to LeciestershireLive, the 71-year-old said: "I'd had to pay £180 just to sit in front of the judge. But a win's a win.
"I'd been planning on using what I won to go on a cruise. Oh well"
It comes after figures last month revealed private parking companies issued a record 14.4 million tickets to British motorists in 2024/25, marking a staggering 13 per cent increase compared to last year.
Figures last month revealed parking companies issued more than £14million tickets in 2024/25
|GETTY
The data shows that private parking enforcement has more than doubled since 2018/19, when 6.8 million tickets were issued.
Motoring organisations have called the surge in penalties evidence of an "urgent" need for Government intervention to reintroduce regulatory oversight of the sector.
The dramatic rise in parking charge notices has prompted renewed criticism of private parking operators, with experts rejecting industry claims that the increase simply reflects more car parks coming under private management.
The daily rate of parking tickets issued by private companies reached 39,374 in the year to March, with each penalty potentially costing drivers up to £100.
This means motorists could be facing collective charges of nearly £3.9million every day at current rates.
Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said in response to the figures: "Frankly, it is now more urgent than ever that this Government puts years and years of false starts behind it and gets on with implementing both a code of practice and an independent appeals service."