A WOMAN was fined £190 for parking her car so that two wheels on a pavement.

Laura Fineberg, 21, had parked on the kerb because the road was narrow and she was concerned that emergency vehicles would not be able to drive along it.

The student returned to Warboys Crescent in the Highams Park/Woodford Green area after spending a day on work experience, only to find her car had vanished.

After discovering that it had been towed away, Miss Fineberg, from Loughton, had to pay £190 to get her silver Ford KA released from a pound in Tottenham Hale.

She said: "It is very difficult to understand this over-zealous action in a residential street, and £190 is such a lot of money. I don't think it really fits the crime at all."

The student parked at 9.25am in Warboys Crescent, a residential side street which has no lines or signs in the road.

When she returned at 4.45pm, she initially panicked, thinking her car had been stolen, but after knocking on the door of a resident, she was informed that it had been towed away.

A traffic warden issued a ticket for the vehicle just before 1pm. He returned an hour later and ordered it to be towed away.

Miss Fineberg, who will be appealing against the fine, said: "I understand now that parking the way I did may not have been appropriate. I did however park there in such a way as to allow traffic to go by easily. You see so many cars parked the way I did.

"I feel the treatment I received was abysmal. I was in effect abandoned, with no notification, for parking in a way I felt would be more beneficial to other road users."

A Waltham Forest Council spokesman said: "A number of local residents have complained to the council that parked vehicles are causing an obstruction to pedestrians in the area and asked for action to be taken. We removed the car as it was parked across 50 per cent of the pavement, which is illegal.

"Drivers shouldn't assume that parking on the pavement is an acceptable way to avoid hindering other road users."

, as it merely obstructs the footway instead. In these cases, we advise drivers to find an alternative location to park."