A charity fund-raiser and her donkey were landed with a £40 parking ticket as they raised cash for a good cause.

Owner Louise Whyte, 48, was unable to steer 17-year-old Aimee's trailer into its usual loading bay in Montague Place, Worthing, so she parked nearby instead.

The pair stayed within sight of the trailer as they spent three hours meeting children and collecting cash, then returned to find the ticket.

Mrs Whyte, of Stablecroft farm, Eartham, near Chichester, said: "We were very upset and disappointed.

"We will go to court over this. It is a matter of principle because this is just so silly.

"Aimee says the law is an ass and she will be calling character witnesses."

Mrs Whyte says she needed quick access to the vehicle in order to get food and water for Aimee and to clear away any mess left on the pavement.

She cannot park in pay car parks because of height restrictions and cannot park in coach bays on the seafront because it would be too dangerous for Aimee to cross the busy road.

Mrs Whyte said: "I hold my hands up. We were parked somewhere that we weren't supposed to.

"But we arrived and there was no room in our space. What were we supposed to do - just turn around and go home, or park in what we thought was the best possible place and do some fund-raising, making sure we stayed near the trailer?

"It was just not possible to get the trailer into our usual space because of other vans blocking our way in.

"We had our charity collecting permit clearly visible in our windscreen, which allows us to park just next to where we were.

"We were standing really close to where we parked and would have moved straight away if someone had come and told us we were causing a problem."

But Sussex Police, who are in charge of Worthing's traffic wardens, have insisted the penalty must be paid.

Mrs Whyte has two weeks to pay up, or else she will face court proceedings.

She said: "It is just so mean-spirited. There was plenty of space for people to walk by and we were not presenting a danger to anyone.

"I know wardens have no discretion but we were so near, our charity permit was visible and they could have just asked us to move.

"We were just trying to raise some funds for a small charity where these amounts of money matter a lot."

Aimee is popular with the public and raises up to £3,000 every year for the Sussex Horse Rescue Trust, at Hempstead Farm, Uckfield, which rehouses and cares for hundreds of unwanted horses and donkeys.

The penalty would have to come out of the £315 raised by Aimee.

Mrs Whyte said she and the animal would not part with the cash without a fight.