THOUSANDS of drivers across England are being sent demands for up to £170 from private parking companies because of faulty machines, campaigners warned today.

Motorists in several regions have received parking charge notices (PCNs) they claim were unfair.

More than 41,000 parking charge notices (PCNs) were being sent to drivers in Britain by private companies every day in November last year, analysis of government data by PA Media and motoring research charity the RAC Foundation found.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the issue as “a problem that needs to be tackled,” while the RAC called for a government-backed code of conduct to be reintroduced.

Many car parks require users to input their vehicle registration when purchasing a ticket from a machine.

This is supposed to prevent them being sent a PCN when their vehicle is detected by automatic number plate recognition cameras.

But there are numerous cases of drivers who insist they entered their registration correctly but still received a PCN.

Each had initial appeals rejected, despite submitting a photograph of their ticket, which shows an incorrect registration was printed.

Campaigner Lynda Eagan says “literally thousands” have been sent tickets because of faulty machines.

She assists drivers who join a Facebook group named Private Parking Tickets — Help and Advice, which has 47,000 members.

“We’ve got unfair PCNs issued to people simply because the machine didn’t work properly," she said.

“It’s a totally filthy business. It’s just wrong.”

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Sadly, it’s abundantly clear from the multitude of examples that some parking companies are wrongly demanding ‘fines’ from drivers who have legitimately paid to park.”