A DRIVER unhappy about a £4 car parking ticket at West Quay tried to lift the barrier causing £4,000 worth of damage, police have said.

Officers were called to the incident when the driver of a white BMW X6 - retailing at around £60,000 - was left fuming about the ticket price.

The "moment of madness" has now left the driver likely to be responsible for repair costs, police said.

READ MORE: Up to 400 Southampton NHS staff off a day when hospital was at black alert

Writing on Twitter, an officer said: "Called out to an incident of a car park customer who unhappy to pay a £4 parking cost, tried to force up the barrier themselves, creating an estimated £4,000 worth of damage - which they'll now likely be liable for.

"A moment of madness can come at quite a cost."

It happened at around 6.40pm on Sunday.

A police spokesman added: "A woman driving a white BMW X6 tried to manually force open an exit barrier at West Quay car park causing damage to it.

"A 41-year old woman from Chilworth was spoken to at the scene by officers and will be attending a voluntary interview at a later date in connection with the incident."

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