A PARKING firm gave a motorist a ticket – and ended up getting into trouble themselves for breaking rules.

Lewis Davies visited the Moorgate Retail Park in Bury town centre and parking attendants slapped a fine on the windscreen of his BMW, having judged that he parked there for 30 minutes too long.

However, Lewis, aged 23, of Carlisle Close, Little Lever, took exception to the claim and refused to pay the £100 fine.

ParkingEye, which enforces the fines, threatened legal action and upped the bill to £175.

Lewis, meanwhile, left the matter in the hands of his father, Carl, and he turned super sleuth.

Carl did some digging and looked into whether the car parks signs and cameras were in keeping with the rules — and it turned out the signs and cameras do not have planning permission.

A Bury Council spokesman said: "We have received two complaints regarding this issue. Having visited the site, we consider that these signs would require advertisement consent.

"We have therefore contacted the company requesting them to either remove the signs or submit an application for consent."

Now, Bolton County Court must decide whether the ticket given to Lewis was issued legally given the fact that the signs did not adhere to the rules.

Carl, also of Carlisle Close, said: "I am good friends with a guy called Barry Moss, who is a well-known campaigner on parking issues.

"He gave me some advice. Lewis took a bit of a back seat with it and left me to it.

"I checked on the Bury Council website and was interested to see that the signs did not have permission, and now we will see what the court says.

"If the ticket has been issued lawfully, we would be happy to pay it. If the court throws it out, we'll take it to the High Court if needs be."

A ParkingEye spokesperson said: “Our signage at the Moorgate Retail Park is in keeping with all industry requirements.

"We are reviewing whether an application for retrospective advertising consent is legally required.

"In this case Mr Davies has not adhered to the terms of our client’s car park and as such will be required to pay his charge.

"We would encourage him to appeal if there are mitigating circumstances.”