A YOUNG mum believes she has been unfairly hounded by bailiffs....for just £5.

Unemployed Sharene Bentley, 25, was given a £35 parking ticket by Southend Council last November, which spiralled to £126 because she didn’t have the money to pay up until recently.

She paid £121 a fortnight ago and promised to pay the final £5 on Thursday, when she receives her latest Jobseeker’s Allowance payment.

However, yesterday a debt recovery firm clamped her gold Fiesta outside her mum’s home, in Hornby Avenue, Southend.

Miss Bentley, of Ambleside Drive, Southend, staged a sit-in protest while being slapped with a new bill for £174, plus the outstanding £5.

A council spokesman said civil enforcement firm Whyte and Co, employed to recover debts, was acting within its rights, but would refund some of what had been paid as a goodwill gesture.

Miss Bentley said: “The police turned up as I said I wasn’t going to pay.

“They said they sympathised with me, but the clampers had a court order, so I had to give in.

“My partner’s dad had to lend me the money.”

Miss Bentley was originally given the penalty charge notice by the council in November after parking in a permit holder’s bay, outside her son’s school, St Mary’s Primary School in Boston Avenue, Southend.

She said she got to her mum Sharon’s house yesterday at about 10am and when she went to use the car about an hour later there was a clamp on it.

To prevent it being towed away, Miss Bentley jumped inside with her partner, Ray Burgess, 25, and two sons, Riley, six, and Leo, three, while sister Tia, 22, sat on the bonnet.

Miss Bentley said: “It all just seemed a bit heavy handed.”

Derek Kenyon, the council’s parking manager, said Whyte and Co received £121 from Miss Bentley – but had no record of her contacting them to make arrangements to pay the rest of the balance.

He said because the debt was not cleared in full the car was immobilised.

The firm clamped the car yesterday in order to get the remaining £5 – and ended up charging Miss Bentley £179 to release her car.

Mr Kenyon said the bailiffs were acting lawfully, but “in the circumstances” they will refund the £132 clamping cost of the £179 which was paid.

The remaining £47 includes a £42 administration charge, plus the £5 which was originally owed.