In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The signage at the car park made it clear that it was ‘Pay on Entry’ and that there was a maximum period of five minutes to purchase the parking tariff.

“This is one of the specific terms and conditions for use of the car park. It is the driver’s responsibility to read and understand the terms.

“It seems that Miss Hudson is the author of her own misfortune.”

The BBC asked Excel Parking why it asks drivers to pay within five minutes, and the company said this was “to mitigate against abuse from motorists who simply use the car park to drop off and pick up passengers from adjacent retailers”.

However, Miss Hudson believes the company cannot justify penalising drivers like herself who pay for a full day’s parking, because they are not using the car park as a drop-off point.

Excel Parking also claimed Miss Hudson took “between 14 and 190 minutes to purchase each parking tariff by phone, an average of almost one hour”.

Miss Hudson said this claim was “absolutely ludicrous”, and if the payments took so long to go through, it was because the app did not process them straight away.

Excel also claims Miss Hudson could have paid using cash at the machine, and said “there was at least one working pay machine on site”.

However, Miss Hudson insists the only machine she saw was out of order, and said it had since been replaced.

Excel said Miss Hudson was given the option to appeal to the Independent Appeals Service (IAS), external but chose not to do so.

Miss Hudson said she instead contacted Excel directly, and also a debt recovery service in an attempt to appeal, but was not successful.