A motorist claims he has been wrongly stung by an automatic camera system, raising questions about how many people have received bogus fines.

Antony Everitt drove his car into a space at the Epping Forest Shopping Park at12.24pm on July 3.

He left a short while later to pick up his son from school, then returned to the shopping centre and drove home.

Several days later he received a letter from Highview Parking demanding £60 for staying in the car park for a continuous four hours and 17 minutes - more than the time allocated to each visitor.

The Forest View, Chingford resident is at least the second person to be wrongly fined when the ANPR missed a mid-park departure and return, Michael McGough suffering the same stern correspondence in March this year.

Mr Everitt said: "This must have been done with full knowledge that the system is flawed.

"They are abusing the trust that they have been given.

"I have endless other parents as witness to this, but in my appeal I just told them to look at the cameras. The notice is a disgrace."

Highview parking did not respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson for Shopping Park owners Epping Forest District Council promised an investigation was underway.

They said: "We apologise to anyone who has wrongly been sent a fine for overstaying their allotted parking time after visiting the Epping forest Shopping Park.

"Where we can see someone has left the carpark and not revisited until the non-return time is over we have sought to cancel the fine as soon as possible.

"We are working with Savills Management company and their contractor High view Parking Ltd’ to establish whether there is a fault in the system and how this could be corrected."