Pregnant woman got ticket ... after being rushed to hospital
A HEAVILY pregnant woman was handed a £50 parking fine despite a note on her car explaining she’d been rushed to hospital.
Toni Griffiths, 32, had suffered severe stomach pains when she was doing a supermarket shop.
Staff called an ambulance and left a note on her windscreen saying: ‘Customer gone to hospital, ambulance called by Asda, come in and talk to Asda.’ But her husband, Ian, 29, found out she had been fined anyway when he returned to pick up the Hyundai IX35. Mrs Griffiths was sent home from hospital later that day.
Last night the student nurse criticised the ‘jobsworth’ warden who handed out the fine as the local authority, Cheshire West and Chester Council, waived the penalty. Mrs Griffiths, who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, said she was ‘angry and upset’ with the warden’s decision. She said: ‘He couldn’t let it go, could he? I know he has a job to do but I had been rushed to hospital – he’s a bit of a jobsworth.’
Security guards at her local Asda in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, had tried to explain the situation to the warden but said he ignored them.
Councillor Karen Shore, of Cheshire West and Chester Council, said wardens have to deal with ‘many weird and wonderful’ excuses.
She added that the Asda staff explained what had happened only after the ticket had been issued so it could not be rescinded on the spot.