Almost every driver will probably at some point have experienced the panic of being late back to you car when your ticket has run out.
You’re laden with shopping bags and you’re desperately running in the rain as the clock is ticking.
As you approach, you can’t help but picture the dreaded yellow and black envelope waiting for you on your windscreen, meaning you’ve just been deprived of a significant chunk of cash for a parking fine.
Most of the time, you're bang to rights - you paid for two hours and you came back late. You just have to take it on the chin.
But it's not always that way - sometimes, it just feels a little bit unfair.
Here's a few examples.
People got fined for not parking within lines that didn't exist
In June, 2019, a car park in Swansea had drivers scratching their heads when they were slapped with fines for not parking in the bays correctly.
Frustratingly, the bays were mostly invisible.
Just two corners of the 'bays' had been painted, with the rest of the white lines covered by gravel, meaning some people were abandoning their cars wherever they saw fit in confusion.
At the time, a spokesman for Excel Parking Services Ltd, which ran the car park, said: "The terms and conditions for parking at the A11 and A14 private car parks in SA1 Swansea include the requirement to park correctly in a bay; the bay areas in the gravelled area of car park A14 are denoted by "T" markings.
"In the two cases referred to us, both parked in the A14 car park and we are satisfied that the parking charge notices were issued correctly."
The woman who was fined after taking her disabled mum to Aldi
On September 30, 2019, Tracie Williams-Rowe, from Rumney , took her 77-year-old mum to do her shopping at Aldi in Ferry Road, Cardiff , after a hospital appointment.
She was hit with a £70 fine after spending 28 minutes over the 90 minutes allowed for customers to park at the store.
Tracie's mum, Sylvia, is severely disabled and has bowel cancer, tongue cancer and heart problems, making it more difficult for them to navigate the store and causing the delay.
Aldi later cancelled the fine "as a gesture of goodwill."
The nurse fined when she was trying to save someone’s life
Even though a nurse working at University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff put a sign on her car's windscreen saying 'cardiac emergency - nurse on call,' the parking attendant stuck strictly to the rules and fined her.
Other doctors and nurses at UHW said they often had no other choice than to be fined or be late for work due to a lack of parking spaces.
A spokeswoman for Indigo, which issued the fine, said: "If drivers incur a parking charge notice while dealing with an emergency situation, they should inform us immediately, at the Parking Shop on-site at Cardiff UHW."
When it happened, in 2017, 85 NHS employees at the hospital were fighting parking fines in court.
The man fined while he visited his dying relative in hospital
In 2018, Philip Samuel was visiting his father-in-law, Ivor Short, at University Hospital, Llandough, when he was issued with a £70 fine for staying 29 minutes longer than his four-hour ticket allowed.
Sadly, his father-in-law died two days later as a result of dementia and pneumonia.
Parking Eye, the company running the car park, later agreed to cancel the fine.
The Lidl shopper fined £90 for spending 20 minutes shopping
Aneurin Davies from Llanybydder in Carmarthenshire went shopping at Lidl in Carmarthen and later got a hefty fine in the post .
Even though the parking at the store was free for 90 minutes for customers, the company that ran the car park said Mr Davies had exceeded his “allowed duration of stay.”
The store later apologised for the mix-up, refunded Mr Davies and offered an apology.
The patients at Cardiff hospitals charged for parking legally
In February, 2019, it was reported that patients and visitors to St David’s Hospital in Canton, Cardiff , were being charged £70 even though they hadn’t done anything wrong.
Gary Snowball, a full-time carer for his 82-year-old mum, Jean, who has dementia, entered his registration at the hospital reception as normal but got a fine through the post two weeks later.
A podiatrist at the hospital, Helen Pickett, was also fined for parking 'illegally' in the visitors' spaces even though she claimed to have always parked in the allocated staff areas.
The man fined while having emergency surgery on his neck
On December 12, 2018, Scott Newborough went to University Hospital Wales in Cardiff with an abscess on his neck that had “swelled up like a golf ball.”
He was given a £70 penalty charge for staying in a multi-storey car park for over the allowed four hours.
Mr Newborough said: “If I’m under the knife I can’t exactly tell the surgeons to stop so I can re-register or move my car."
He called for the pay and display system at Wales’ biggest hospital to be reinstated.
The parking ticket ripped up after a dispute over signs
In July, 2019, Angus Johnston parked outside Tesco in St Helen’s Road, Swansea , and was given a fine for parking illegally in a loading bay.
He was caught by a mobile ANPR van. On appeal, Swansea Council did not enforce the fine because it could not prove there was adequate signage telling him not to park there.
Since 2011, a total of 8,208 parking fines had been issued in St Helen's Road, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request found.
The couple who refused to pay a £140 parking fine in Llandudno
Craig and Lisa Booth were fined over £100 for parking at Mostyn Champneys in Llandudno .
The penalty notice they received said they had parked for eight hours and 31 minutes but the couple insisted they had returned within the three-hour time limit on both occasions they had used the car park that day.
Mr Booth said: “We certainly didn't park there for eight hours. Can anybody shop that long in Llandudno?"
The taxi driver charged for picking people up from Bridgend Asda
Barrie Harcombe, a taxi driver with Radio Cabs, was fined £60 for allegedly staying in an Asda car park for more than the three hour limit.
Mr Harcombe contested saying: “I’m a registered taxi driver and I’m in and out of there on a regular basis but the cameras must have missed me going out.”
The woman who was threatened with court action when her parking ticket flipped over
The £1 a woman paid to park at a car park in Bridgend in 2018 almost turned into £160 and a court appearence.
She was issued with a parking charge notice for not displaying a valid ticket.
"A gust of wind must have flipped over the ticket as I closed the door," she said in her defence.
She even sent a picture to Link Parking, which runs the car park, proving she had another 20 minutes of the hour she had paid for left.
"We stated a valid ticket was not displayed, we did not state you hadn't purchased one," they replied.
The best advice, of course, is to try and avoid getting a parking fine in the first place , and if you do get one, make sure you know your rights and how to appeal .
