AN AA member who was charged an additional £126 after her broken down car was towed away on police instructions has had her money reimbursed.

But Jane Priestley, 45, has demanded that the matter is looked into to ensure it can not happen to her or any other driver again.

Miss Priestley was travelling to Oswaldtwistle where she works for Communicare, when the windscreen wiper on her Vauxhall Cavalier stopped working.

She pulled over on to the hard shoulder of the M55 between Blackpool and Kirkham turn-off and was told the AA would be with her in half an hour.

But police called her back and told her a breakdown truck had been arranged to remove her vehicle from the motorway because half an hour was the maximum time a car could be left there.

The truck arrived and she was then charged £126 to release the car. Miss Priestley, of Blackpool, who travels more than 300 motorway miles a week, has been an AA member for more than three years because she thought the service gave her peace of mind that she would not have to pay up in one go if she broke down.

But she says this belief has been ruined after the incident as she had to pay out more than her annual AA membership of £118 to have her car released.

She said: "This is unacceptable. It is great that I have been sent a cheque for the money by the AA but I want assurance that the same situation will not happen again.

"I told them I would not let this drop and asked them if they would be happy if the same thing happened to them -- it isn't right and something needs to be done.

"Surely some arrangement can be made between the AA and police to resolve this.

"But if there is a time limit for how long you can be broken down on the motorway then they should be able to get to you within that period anyway."

A police spokesman said it was "force policy" to remove vehicles from the hard shoulder if a recovery company cannot reach it within 30 minutes.

She said: "The simple reason is that there have been people killed on the hard shoulder of motorways. We use an approved recovery operator if other companies can't get there in time."

An AA spokesman confirmed that the incident was being looked into.