A pensioner who received a parking ticket for displaying her disabled badge back-to-front had to wait seven months for a response to her appeal after her six letters were "overlooked".

Doreen Marsh, 75, from Lodge Lane, Finchley, was issued the ticket when parked in High Road, North Finchley, on a double yellow line, on February 10 - as she has done every Friday for the past 15 years.

As a disabled driver, she is legally allowed to park in the spot opposite Sainsbury's, but she must display her valid blue badge, which on this occasion was displayed the wrong way round.

Upon receiving the £40 ticket, Miss Marsh wrote to Barnet Council to appeal, but later received a letter saying she had to pay £80 for not paying the fine within the designated 14 days.

She then paid the £40 but sent a letter appealing against the fine.

By March, she had still not heard back from the council and over the next few months, wrote an additional six letters to the council asking to hear whether the appeal had been accepted or rejected.

"It was tearing me apart," she said. "The months went by and I heard nothing despite asking on numerous occasions. It was awful."

Last Monday, Miss Marsh contacted The Sun newspaper and that afternoon she received a call from the council, which apologised and refunded her £40. She said: "I wrote so many letters and went to hell and back not knowing. Then as soon as a national newspaper called for me, I got a response."

A council spokesman said: "The Sun newspaper made it clear that it would not be writing a story on the issue, so the threat of a tabloid news article did not lead to the cancellation of the penalty.

"If Miss Marsh had followed this up via a more conventional method, such as through the council's complaints procedure, the issue would have been investigated in the same way.

"Owing to an administrative error, Miss Marsh's correspondence was overlooked, and we apologise if this caused her any distress.

"We are in the process of implementing new procedures in the parking team to ensure these sorts of mistakes don't happen."