Private parking companies make tens of millions of pounds from drivers every year through parking fines but a graduate from Chatham is leading a fight against them.

Michael Green, from Walderslade, has set up a company called Challenge the Fine to help motorists get their money back.

Mr Green, 22, who has an masters degree in EU Law, argues because the law around these fines, often issued in supermarket car parks, is dubious, they could be illegal.

The former Rochester Math School pupil said: “It is unfair that companies may be doing things illegally but know they will never be challenged about it.

“They exploit ambiguities in the law and use this to benefit from them.”

He said the tickets breach something known as the penalties doctrine which means you can charge someone for a breach of a contract, such as overstaying in your car park.

But you can only recover the amount lost, so if someone overstays for 10 minutes, you can charge them for those extra 10 minutes, yet private parking companies charge people around £100.

Neil Samworth received a parking penalty from a private firm when he popped to McDonald’s to treat his family, and ended up being served a £100 fine.

Mr Samworth, 49, had parked outside the drive-thru in Commercial Road, Strood, when he spotted his wife Kim and their two young sons in the market opposite.

He popped over to ask if they wanted something to eat and returned to his car less than a minute later to discover two parking attendants slapping a ticket on his windscreen.

The Met Parking Services wardens told him they were instructed to fine drivers who step a foot over the McDonald’s boundary.

Mr Samworth, of Bingham Road, Strood, said: “I couldn’t believe it. It’s not as though I was taking my business elsewhere.

“They must have run over to my car as soon as my back was turned. I’m refusing to pay it and will take it court if I have to.”

Mr Green, who graduated with a first class degree in law from Cambridge University, said: “No-one knows whether these tickets are enforceable and therefore a scam, because no English court with power to definitively answer this question has done so.”

Where these cases reach court they are only heard in lower courts, so the result is not binding in law.

A Court of Appeal hearing next year will decide whether these tickets are legal which will make it law.

This is where Challenge the Fine comes in. Mr Green said: “If next year’s appeal says the tickets are unlawful, we will then argue every ticket ever paid out ought to be refunded and take this to court.

“The success of Challenge The Fine relies on getting the message out, we need people who have lost money to know that there is a way to fight the aggressive parking firms.”

For now, people who have received private parking charges just need to sign up online with their email address and the amount they paid.

To find out more visit www.challengethefine.com or www.facebook.com/challengethefine.