"TIREDNESS kills" reads the government's campaign slogan - but when Daniel Nash snoozed at a motorway service station, he woke up to a £45 parking fine.

He was on his way up north to visit relatives when he stopped at the Wooley Edge Services on the M1 for a doze. He says all the parking attendant needed to do was to knock on the window to wake him up.

Daniel, from Queens Park, said: "I was dog tired and pulled over for a sleep for two-and-a-half hours.

"When I woke there was a ticket on the car and I realised parking there was limited to two hours. But why couldn't they have tapped the window and woken me up?

"I paid the fine but sent a covering letter to say as far as I was aware me sleeping in the car meant it should be classified as waiting, not parking.

"They're completely out of order. Fair enough if I'd parked there and there was no one in the car, but they shouldn't be so severe. I was doing the sensible thing by pulling over and they penalised me."

A spokeswoman for CP Plus Ltd, the London-based company that issued the ticket, said it was their policy not to allow attendants to wake up sleeping motorists.

She added: "In the past, attendants have knocked on people's doors and asked for payment and they've got angry at being woken up and have been confrontational.

"We do understand people travel long distances and need to sleep but we have had aggravation waking them up in the past.

"If people think they are going to be staying in the car park over the permitted time they ought to purchase a ticket."

But the company said that if Daniel appealed against the ticket they would consider it.

First published: October 18