Irene Ogley ensured she returned to her car before her parking ticket expired but was shocked to find a £25 fine.
"I'm not going to pay it because it's ridiculous" she told the Daily Echo. "The ticket was face up on the dashboard and it had not run out."
Mrs Ogley parked her car in the Sovereign Centre in Boscombe on Wednesday morning at 11am and paid £1 for two hours.
On her return, she discovered a fine had been issued by Britannia Parking Limited at 12.43pm. The reason stated was hand-written and said: "Ticket upside down."
Mrs Ogley said: "There are a number of boxes on the printed ticket which can be ticked for offences such as staying too long or parking in the wrong place but this was hand-written. I couldn't believe it."
A spokesman for Britannia Parking Limited, which operates in Bournemouth through a PO Box number, told the Echo: "We do not discuss individual cases.
"If Mrs Ogley writes to our excess charge department we will look into it."
Mrs Ogley, 69, of Pokesdown, said she intends to dispute the charge and added: "There is nothing to tell you exactly which angle the ticket should be displayed at."
Typical bureaucrats - let's all display our parking tickets upside down and see what happens!
