A GRANDMOTHER who says the council’s parking fines are ‘daylight robbery’ would rather go to prison than pay hers.

Geraldine Tompkins parked on the grass verge outside her friend’s house in Poverest Road, St Mary Cray, because she says it is safer than parking on the road, while the buses are on diversion because of the bridge works.

The 73-year-old thought it was okay to do so because there are no signs saying you cannot but she was snapped twice in two days by Bromley Council’s CCTV camera.

Mrs Tompkins says if she had got a ticket on her windscreen she would not have parked in the same place on the next day.

But the fines of £55 each were sent to her house in Duncan Hill, Honor Oak Park, on the same day so she did not know she had done anything wrong until it was too late.

She said: “In Lewisham borough where I live there’s all kinds of places you can park on a verge.

“I rang Bromley Council and said I want to go to court because I want to explain how difficult it is to park in that road but apparently this does not happen anymore.

“It goes to an adjudicator and then they can just take your car.

“It’s like we do not have any democratic rights and it is just daylight robbery and you cannot go to court and explain what happened.

“I said I would have to go to prison over it and they said I can’t, they would have to take my car.”

A Bromley Council spokesman said: “The vehicle was parked completely on the verge and if all vehicles did this, grass verges would become damaged and require repairs.

"The Highway Code clearly states that vehicles should not park on pavements unless there is a sign allowing parking and the same is true of grass verges.

"Ever since the council was responsible for enforcing parking restrictions when this was decriminalised in the 1990s, motorists have received penalty charges on the rare occasions that this happens.”