Brighton and Hove City Council made two mistakes when dealing with Wendy Richardson's elderly Ford Fiesta.
Having wrongly assumed it was abandoned and removed it from Thompson Road in Hollingdean, the council destroyed it before Ms Richardson had been given a chance to reclaim it.
Now she is being offered only £150 for a vehicle she had just bought for £675 and which contained some valuable property including a CD player.
Ms Richardson is partly to blame for not taxing the car, which made the council think it was abandoned.
But if she can prove the purchase price for the car, the council should feel honour-bound to repay her that sum.
She and her partner have also suffered a great deal of inconvenience.
The council is right to remove abandoned cars, which can be a dangerous nuisance, as soon as possible.
But on this occasion it has been overzealous. Ms Richardson deserves at least not to be out of pocket as a result.
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