I have received an extortionate "charge notice" for parking at a motorway service station while I was resting on a long journey.

In early June I was driving home from a concert in Manchester to Newcastle. I had driven a total of about eight hours that day, and when I reached the Moto service station at Scotch Corner at 1.45 in the morning, I felt very tired. I pulled in and parked in their car park, intending to take a short rest.

There was only one other vehicle in the car park at the time. I did notice one sign saying that parking charges applied after two hours, but as I did not intend to stay longer than that, I thought there was no problem.

Unfortunately I was so tired I fell asleep completely and woke at 5am. As soon as I woke I tried to find somewhere to pay but could not, so I started my journey home again.

I subsequently received a charge notice from a company called CP Plus for £90. They had recorded my vehicle arriving and departing on camera and traced my home address. I did not intend to fall asleep but it was surely better to fall asleep in a car park rather than while driving on a motorway? I thought, perhaps naively, that motorway service stations existed to provide vital rest stops, or are they simply money-making traps? KP, Whitley Bay

There's a general lesson to be learned here. If you get what you consider to be an unfair ticket or charge in this way in a private car park, you should not feel under pressure automatically to pay it. Not only are they often unenforceable but, as they are largely unregulated, companies can charge what they want.

If you consider you didn't break the rules, the rules weren't clear or you had an emergency to deal with, you can challenge a parking ticket. You can also challenge it if the amount you are being asked to pay is unfair.

Moto is the largest motorway services operator in the UK and its policy – common to all such operators and endorsed by the Department for Transport – is free parking for the first two hours, after which drivers are required to pay a fee (currently £11) covering the next 24 hours. Moto says these rules are "prominently displayed throughout our car parks, along with instructions on where the fee can be paid at any time of day or night, including guidance on how to pay via a mobile telephone. All our car parks are controlled by automatic number-plate recognition cameras, which automatically generate a parking charge notice if a vehicle is registered as being on site for more than two hours without paying the parking fee."

Moto advises drivers who accidentally or unintentionally overstay the free parking period – and believe they have mitigating circumstances – to contact the duty manager before leaving the site. It says that had you done this, the ticket would not have been issued.

The company has now cancelled the £90 charge and also declined your offer to pay the £11, which you should have settled at the time. As you say yourself: "Finally, peace and goodwill to all men and women broke out!"

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