McDonald's drive-through customers face £125 fine for taking too long to eat

Now, however, the firm appears to be expecting them to eat and digest it almost just as fast.

Motorists are being given a 45-minute limit to finish their food in some drive-throughs before they have to leave the car park - or face a £125 fine.

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Failure to pay results in the fine swiftly escalating, followed by court action and bailiffs.

The policy has been introduced in around 40 McDonald's restaurants to prevent the car parks being 'abused'.

It is being run by a private company which uses number plate recognition cameras to log when people arrive and leave.

If drivers spend too long munching on their Big Macs, the details of the registered keeper are obtained from the DVLA and they are billed.

Motorist Jamie Thomson said he was fined after eating his lunch in the car park. He said: "I ordered a burger, chips, a doughnut, coke and coffee.

"I sat in my car eating my lunch and listening to the radio.

"After eating, I continued to sip my coffee for a time and ate my doughnut. Then I left. All perfectly normal."

He claims he was in the car for about an hour.

Several weeks later he got a letter from Civil Enforcement, which runs the car parks, demanding £125, or £75 if it was paid quickly.

He asked for photographic evidence only to be told he would have to pay for it.

Mr Thomson, a businessman from Sussex, has not paid and his charge has risen to £213. He has also been threatened with court action. He and his family refuse to go back to McDonald's.

The McDonald's charges are the latest example of companies contracting out their car parks to private companies who police them with fines and clamping.

An elderly couple from Wiltshire were recently picked out by Tesco for taking too long doing their Christmas shopping.

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said the time restriction varied between restaurants and in some was one-and-a-half hours.

She said: "In some car parks, and in particular we are looking at Gatwick, we were finding the car park was being abused, in particular by taxi drivers and chauffeurs.

"Some people would also leave their cars there while they went on holiday.

"The result was our customers couldn't park next to the restaurant so we introduced restrictions in selected car parks. All customers are told when they order about the restrictions and we give them the opportunity to ask for longer."

Civil Enforcement operates 700 car parks along similar lines.

Its founder Gary Wayne said it issues a 'considerable number' of parking tickets every year.

He added the 'hi-tech approach' is 'less confrontational than clamping and towing'.