A shocked car park user was told to cough up more than £700 for a standard two-hour stay.

Website designer Aliy Fowler was met with the eye-watering charge following a trip to the city last Saturday.

The reason why her stay - which was meant to cost £3.75 - ended up totalling £714.20 is still a mystery.

“After several attempts at paying the initial sum, my husband realised it had suddenly jumped up,” Mrs Fowler said.

“The machine was acting as if we had arrived in August and never left - it’s a pretty serious software error.

“If it has been playing up like this before then the council has potentially got an awful lot of money it shouldn’t have.”

Mrs Fowler was able to leave the car park without paying the hefty charge after asking for assistance.

City council spokesman Rob Davies apologised for the trouble.

He said: “Pound Lane will be getting the new ANPR system in the next few weeks as part of the roll out of the project across the district.”