An accountant was charged over £6,000 for one hour of parking while she paid a visit to her financial advisor.

Ruth Ritchie, 60, used a mobile phone app called PayByPhone to pay for her parking in Granville Street car park, Swindon.

She believed she was paying £1.20 but, it turns out, she paid £6,500 for 4,000 hours of parking.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Ms Ritchie highlighted the irony of the situation: 'I was going to see a mortgage broker as I'm buying a property. I would need a mortgage to pay for that parking.'

Insisting to the Daily Mail that she didn't type in the wrong information, Ms Ritchie blamed the payment system and asked: 'How can someone even pay for 4000 hours of parking upfront?'

In a statement the council said: 'Unfortunately, the customer made an error in keying in her details and asked for over 4,000 hours of parking instead of 1 hour. The system always asks drivers if they want to authorise any payment before money is taken, and approval was given.'

'This does happen from time to time, although seldom for such large amounts', they added.

The company that deals with the parking fees told the council that the money has been refunded