A war widow received a £40 Parking fine for placing her pay-and-display ticket upside-down on her car dashboard.

Elsie Scollick, 81, paid £1 at 10am for an hour's stay at the Hyde Gardens car park in Eastbourne town centre.

When she returned to her X-reg Ford Fiesta at 10.43am, with 17 minutes to spare, Mrs Scollick found a fine stuck to her windscreen.

On the ticket, a traffic warden had chastised her for placing the ticket upside down on her dashboard, saying it was impossible to read the expiry time.

Mrs Scollick, of Honeyway Close, Polegate, said: "I was absolutely furious. It came as a huge shock. I didn't think you could be fined for having a pay-and-display ticket placed upside down.

"I can't see why someone shouldn't be able to read an upside down ticket. The world has gone mad."

She said the traffic warden ought to be ashamed of himself for giving a ticket to an elderly lady like her.

Mrs Scollick, who used to work in the rag trade, made the seven-mile journey from home into Eastbourne town centre to drop a lady friend off at the Job Centre.

She was today heading back to Eastbourne Borough Council's offices in Grove Road to dispute the fine.

Mrs Scollick, whose first husband died in the Second World War, said: "I'm not paying that in a million years, not on my little pension.

"Nobody is taking me for a mug. I have been through the war so I know how to deal with people like this."

A borough council spokesman said: "In normal circumstances, if proof of validity was provided, the penalty ticket would be cancelled.

"Parking penalty tickets are issued if pay-and-display tickets are upside down because this makes it virtually impossible for attendants to read the ticket expiry time.

"The council's car park instructions request tickets are attached to the windscreen."

He said if Mrs Scollick paid the penalty and provided proof that she had a valid ticket, the council would refund her.