A driver is celebrating after winning a landmark parking victory in Bolton.

And Tracey Pilkington's triumph could mean thousands of other parking fines are invalid, a campaigner for motorists claimed yesterday Miss Pilkington argued a ticket, slapped on her car because it was parked over the line of a parking bay, was invalid because a sign at the car park was worded incorrectly.

It said vehicles "must park within a parking space" - but did not explicitly state they must be "wholly" within an allotted bay.

Miss Pilkington, aged 40, took her appeal to the National Parking Adjudication Service and won.

She was represented by her father-in-law, Barry Moss, who is a self-taught expert in parking laws and appeals.

Mr Moss, a 60-year-old retired roofer, said: "This decision not only has implications in Bolton, but the rest of the country. I believe the council is now duty-bound to pay back all fines of this nature that it has issued."

Miss Pilkington parked her car, a Vauxhall Tigra, at the Topp Way car park in Bolton on December 20 last year. She was given a ticket because her front wheel was around five inches over the parking space line.

She appealed against the fine, but was told by Bolton Council she must pay-up. Mr Moss stepped in and launched the appeal.

Giving his verdict, parking adjudicator Stephen Knapp said that cars must park within the lines of a bay to "impose some discipline in the parking of vehicles to ensure maximum use of the parking spaces within the parking place."

But he added there was insufficient indication on signs of the requirement for every wheel of the vehicle to be parked wholly within the bay.

He upheld Miss Pilkiington's appeal.

Miss Pilkington, a mother of four from Park Road, Westhoughton, said: "I couldn't understand why I had been given a ticket. I had paid my fee and was back in time, so I was annoyed and confused "When Barry looked into it, it emerged it was because I had parked over the line.

"If I had known it would lead to a ticket I would have been a bit more careful, but the car park was pretty empty and I wasn't obstructing anyone."

Mr Moss, of Hindley Road, Daisy Hill, now believes a majority, if not all signs at off-street car parks in Bolton are "non compliant" with the law and that Bolton Council is not legally permitted to fine motorists until they are changed. He also believes there are hundreds of motorists who have been illegally fined and is urging them to mount retrospective challenges.

Bolton Council has said it will review the car park signs as a result of the appeal decision, but it says the adjudication does not mean past or future tickets issued are illegal.

A spokesman said: "This adjudication does not make parking enforcement in Bolton illegal and there is certainly no reference to this anywhere in the decision.

"It is the council's view that each case is judged on its own facts and the council has been successful on a previous occasion when parking outside the bay was adjudicated upon."

In 2005 over eight million parking tickets, worth a collective £1.16 billion were issued in the UK, according to the Financial Times. But despite the statistics, nationally only one per cent of issued tickets were challenged.

In Bolton, parking wardens earned more than £1 million for the council by issuing nearly 45,000 tickets between April, 2006, and May, 2007 The £60 fines are reduced to £30 if paid within two weeks.