No. Fair's fair. She parked on private land, so the owner of the private land is perfectly entitled to charge her for this according to the terms of the contract it provides for parking on its premises. But if those terms are not clearly displayed there can be no contract and she can deny in court ever breaching them, even though she did clearly trespass on the land.

Once the Protection of Freedoms Bill is passed with Clause 56 unamended, no one will ever be able to park on an vacant piece of private land without the keeper of the vehicle incurring a penalty like this. Happily, the British Parking Association is trialling an appeals process which some MPs are demanding before they will allow this through. You can find out more about that here: www.parkingforum.co.uk/adjudication_pilot / It states, “This pilot is designed to test the principles behind formalising such a service and may form the basis of a statutory appeals service when the Government legislates to introduce one.” That is exactly what I have been campaigning for.