FARMER and faith healer Maggie Vigor-Smith has been given a parking ticket in Marlborough.

She is one of hundreds of people who get fixed penalty tickets in the town each year for not having a current parking permit.

But Mrs Vigar-Smith, who lives at Wernham Farm on the Pewsey Road, outside Marlborough, was not booked for not having a parking ticket, but for having too many.

It is not unusual to see cars with their side windows and sometimes their windscreens adorned with scores of spent tickets.

But Mrs Vigar-Smith said she had no more than half a dozen parking slips on her dashboard when she parked her Daihatsu four-wheel drive car in Marlborough High Street.

She said: "I used the parking area in the centre of the street and I made sure I was parked properly between the lines because I know they can book you for that.

"I went to the machine and paid the £1.30 to park for two hours and went back to my car and put the ticket on the dashboard where it could be seen by the wardens.

"You can imagine my surprise when I got back to the car and saw I had a parking ticket attached to the windscreen.

"I knew I was well under the two hours so I thought it must have been a mistake.

"I knew I had put enough money in the machine not to get done for going over my time.

"When I opened the plastic envelope, the ticket inside was for displaying multiple pay and display tickets."

The fixed penalty notice said she would have to pay a fine of £60 that would be reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.

Mrs Vigar-Smith said she went back to the ticket machine and checked the wording on it and there was no reference to displaying multiple tickets.

"I could see no signs saying this was prohibited," said Mrs Vigar-Smith, who is a member of Savernake Parish Council.

She said she planned to write to Kennet District Council to say she considered she had been issued with the penalty for a petty reason as she had a valid ticket.

A Kennet spokeswoman said the council did not comment on individual cases but added that the display of multiple pay and display tickets was not permitted. "This is a nationally recognised offence under the recently introduced Decriminalised Parking Enforcement," she said.

"If the driver feels that the charge is unjust they have the right to appeal."