A disabled pensioner has suffered sleepless nights after wrongly being sent a parking fine.

Patricia Pilgrim, 72, parked  in a Blackwater Aldi supermarket disabled car park space with her disability blue badge clearly displayed in her car.

Mrs Pilgrim, who has a condition that restricts her from walking long distances, was shocked to receive a £70 fine through the post on Monday.

Parking Eye, which manages the Rosemary Lane car park, admits it mistakenly issued the penalty because camera equipment was unable to distinguish between blue badge holders and people parking illegally.

Non-disabled drivers are allowed to leave their vehicles in the car park for an hour and a half, while blue badge holders have three hours.

Mrs Pilgrim, of Christ Church Drive, Blackwater, left her car for an hour and 44 minutes on September 4.

She said: “I have never been in trouble before and I guess that people have been taking advantage of disabled bays.

“If you haven’t got a disabled badge then you can’t park there.

“I can’t afford to pay it and I am not paying anything. I had my badge up. I would rather go to prison than pay the fine.

“I pay my taxes and water rates and everything else.

“I don’t like being in debt.”

Mrs Pilgrim said she began shaking when she read the letter.

“I had a couple of bad nights after that and couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I am definitely not going to pay.”

A Parking Eye spokesman said: “If you are a blue badge holder the fine will be rescinded. The blue badge is tagged to number plates and we don’t have access to that information.

“We will rescind the fine and that has always been our policy. We can’t know if they have a blue badge because the system is camera operated.”