A motorist was left scratching his head after receiving a parking ticket for being illegally parked - in a car park more two miles away from where he actually was.

Plasterer Steve Davis, of Beverley Road, Bexleyheath, said he couldn't believe what had happened when Bexley Council slapped a ticket on his car - and what's more he had returned to his vehicle well before his parking session had expired.

He said: "I thought this is wrong... we were well within the time. We did it over the app and everything so we thought we'd wait for the evidence to come through."

Steve later learned that the council had given him a ticket for parking in Albany Park railway station, in Steynton Avenue, when he had actually been parked 2.5 miles away in Albion Road multi-storey in Bexleyheath.

He said: "I'm seeing the funny side now, but until the charge was dropped I wasn't.

"I challenged it, but I do wonder how many people aren't challenging it. People aren't thinking, I suppose."

The picture supplied to Mr Davis as evidence showed Albion Road car park, but the reference was captioned as Albany Park.

Bexley Council dropped the parking fine against Mr Davis, but in a letter seen by News Shopper, claimed it was correctly given.

The letter said: "It seems you made a mistake with the location details when setting up parking.

"We have cancelled it on this occasion. If you get another PCN in similar circumstances, we may not be able to cancel it."

Bexley Council has since admitted the mistake.

A spokeswoman said: "There was no error on the part of the motorist and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. This Penalty Charge Notice has been cancelled and a notice has been sent to the resident to confirm this.

"When we investigated, we discovered that the Civil Enforcement Officer had selected the wrong location from the alphabetically ordered list on their handheld device automatically flagging to our parking team that the resident had not purchased a ticket for this location. Regrettably, a notice stating this had already been sent to the resident.

"We have since sent a second notice apologising for the incorrect issue of the penalty charge and for the incorrect statement in the first notice. A contract default has been recorded against the service provider as set out in the terms of our contract with them."