A HEAVILY pregnant woman is appalled after her appeal over a £100 fine for a face-down ticket was rejected by a private car parking company despite claiming she was too pregnant to squeeze between the cars to check it was visible.

Catherine Swann Hill’s appeal was rejected by One Parking Solution, even though she sent the company evidence she had a valid ticket and is nine months pregnant.

The mother-of-three, from Hove, parked in the Vantage Point car park on Elder Place, Brighton, to attend a doctor’s appointment at nearby medical practice.

She claims after closing her car door the ticket on the dashboard was blown over by the breeze and because another car parked alongside her four wheel drive Dacia, she was physically unable to squeeze between the cars to check the ticket was face up.

Mrs Hill said: “My ticket got blown over by the wind when I was shutting the door and someone parked so closely - it was a really tight parking space. I was hoping they would take this into account.

“I said I genuinely couldn’t see the ticket had been blown the wrong way round, and gave them my maternity form, and they got back to me within six hours and said tough give us £100 quid.

“They said they don’t accept any mitigating circumstances and don’t accept I paid for the ticket, even though they’ve seen pictures of it. They know very well the ticket was there because they took a picture of it themselves, it’s just the wrong way round.”

Gavin Price, One Parking Solution operation manager, in a statement said: "The parking charge notice was issued as the ticket was incorrectly displayed and therefore could not be seen for inspection.

"The parking charge notice was subsequently issued for this reason. It is solely the responsibility of the driver to ensure they park within the guidelines stated on several signs located in and around the car park.

"The driver had their internal appeal declined and now they have the option of appealing to POPLA (Parking on Private Land Appeals)."

Mrs Swann Hill, who is expecting to give birth to a baby girl imminently at the Royal Sussex Hospital, said she will now appeal through ombudsman POPLA and is prepared to go to court to fight the fine.

She warned: “Definitely be really careful with these private parking companies because otherwise you’ll have to pay 100 pounds and they are on you like a rash.”