A disabled woman was left baffled after she was hit with a £100 fine at a busy airport drop off point.

Sarah Mannion was hit with the fine by car park firm APCOA after she went to drop off a friend's 91-year-old disabled father at Manchester Airport.

The airport claims that anyone with a valid blue disabled parking badge "can access the drop-off zone free of charge for drop-off only.

"To use this service, the travelling passenger must produce their Blue Badge to the traffic marshals when entering the area".

However, when she parked up in one of the disabled bays at Terminal 2, there were no marshals present.

The 57-year-old from Macclesfied told the Manchester Evening News: "Before we went, we looked it up online to see what you have to do.

"Basically they say you have to turn up to the airport and park in the blue bays. It said show the marshal your badge but there was no marshal there.

"We disembarked the passenger that's disabled, which you have time to do because you're in the disabled bay."

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After wandering around the car park to try to find someone to speak to, Mannion decided to go home after dropping off her passenger and try to speak to someone from the airport over the phone.

However, Mannion said she was unable to find a resolution to her query as she could not speak to a customer service representative and was instead redirected to a web chat.

The chat told her she had to wait until Monday to speak to someone as she had gone to the airport on a Saturday.

However, this meant she had passed the deadline to pay the fee for visiting the drop off zone, which she said she had no intention of paying in the first place.

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Mannion, who is disabled herself suffering a back injury more than a decade ago said she is unsure if she will be successful in her endeavour.

She said: "I've appealed it and I've been waiting for a response.

"I don't even know if I'm going to win this appeal.

"They could quite as easily say no and I'll have to pay the fine. I actually did everything in my power, and I'm trying to sort it out."

Now, Mannion has called on the airport to rethink their approach to the drop off zone, saying the whole ordeal had made her angry.

She told the MEN: "If they've got the technology to read a registration plate, then they've got the technology for me to take my disabled badge up to a machine, scan it, put my registration in and then leave.

"We're not in the olden days where there needs to be a man standing there, and there still wasn't a man standing there.

"I get very, very frustrated, nobody at 57 wants to be disabled."

She continued: "People just assume that someone like me can just run up and down a forecourt to sort something out, people don't understand the extra that it takes."

A spokesperson for APCOA told the MEN: "If any driver feels that they have been issued with a Parking Charge unfairly, they should appeal using the details contained within the letter.

"We have received Ms Mannion's appeal, and it is currently being reviewed".