A database of parking ticket details for almost 10,000 motorists has been mistakenly published online, a Sky News investigation can reveal.

PaymyPCN.net, which claims to have collected penalty charges for 20 years and has a direct link to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database, allows drivers to pay fines via its website.

The company says it is dedicated to safeguarding motorists' privacy and that transaction details entered into the site are encrypted.

But a backdoor link to its computer database seen by Sky News gave public access to drivers' names and addresses provided by the DVLA; information that is restricted to police and licensed parking firms.

The content of emails appealing penalty charges could also be read and photographs of motorists and their vehicles taken by enforcement officers can be seen.

The database allows photographs to be deleted or uploaded and details of the penalty charge location and date of the contravention can also be viewed.

A link to the data was published on Twitter by consumer activist Michael Green after a private parking firm sent it to a motorist in error.

Mr Green recently launched a campaign against enforcement of parking on private land and against the DVLA selling motorists' details to private firms.

He said: "I am not surprised by this. The DVLA claims to have safeguards in place to ensure drivers' details are safe but these only exist as media soundbites.

"Our campaign challengethefine.com aims to get people compensated for parking data breaches. Despite the RAC Foundation questioning the legality of these charges the DVLA still passes millions of details on to private firms."

An open search of the database confirmed 9,721 records could be viewed online or downloaded in spreadsheet format. One motorist contacted by Sky News said she was concerned her data was available.

"My husband has been a victim of ID fraud and to find my details just thrown around the internet is shocking and quiet scary," she said. "I didn't know they were able to publish that. I thought it was private information.

"I did get a ticket and I did appeal but they said if I didn't pay I could be liable to pay a higher amount, so I just paid it in the end."

The DVLA has previously been criticised for failing to effectively audit private parking firms to which it sells motorists' names and addresses. The organisation has recovered some £22m from the sale of motorists' data over four years.

A DVLA spokeswoman said: "This is not a DVLA error. We take our duty to safeguard data very seriously and we will not compromise data security.

"DVLA does not hold or provide data such as photographs, emails and phone numbers to private parking companies."

PaymyPCN.net took its website offline after it was contacted by Sky News and the company declined to comment.