A woman who ran a company parking cars her customers left at Gatwick Airport when they went travelling, has been fined £10,000 for not complying with a planning enforcement notice.

Millie Stojanovic of Old Orchard, Church Lane, Burstow, was found guilty at Redhill Magistrates’ Court after proceedings were brought by Tandridge District Council.

She was fined £10,000, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £3,140 and £15 to the victim support fund. The court heard Ms Stojanovic ran a company called Airport Direct, parking cars her customers left at Gatwick airport when they went travelling.

Ms Stojanovic knew she was not allowed to use her land at Church Lane to park motor vehicles unconnected with the residential use of the property. However, an enforcement notice was issued in 2004 following an investigation at Old Orchard into the land being used to provide off-airport parking without planning permission. In December 2011, the council received complaints about vehicles being parked on the land.

Its Planning Enquiry Officer visited the site and saw several cars. Millie Stojanovic and her partner claimed they were just washing the cars there and storing them at a different site.

But the Planning Enquiry Officer contacted the drivers of the vehicles and asked them to complete witness statements. These confirmed they dropped off their vehicles at Gatwick Airport and picked them up from there too after returning from holiday. No arrangements were made for their cars to be washed and valeted. As a result of the investigation, the council decided the cars on the Old Orchard site were being parked in connection with non-residential use of the site, and in breach of the Enforcement Notice. Councillor Gill Black, chairman of Tandridge District Council's planning committee, said: “This is the second successful prosecution we have taken against Ms Stojanovic, who is fully aware of the enforcement notice and the restrictions this places on using her land for off-airport parking.”