A Battersea woman was threatened with eviction after her new swipe card - trumpeted as an “easy and convenient” way to pay council rent - failed to work.

Norah Griffin, 59, has diligently paid £5.60 every fortnight in rent arrears since a brain haemorrhage four years ago caused her to fall behind with her payments, and she was taken to court by Wandsworth Council.

But on May 23, the Surrey Lane resident tried to pay the required amount at an outlet, and the plastic swipe card did not work.

After the bank holiday weekend, she phoned the council and was thanked for her quick action.

But the next day she was shocked to receive a letter from the authority, saying she was in breach of her court order and was being “considered for eviction proceedings”.

Ms Griffin said: “It was very scary. I made an official complaint, but it took a lot for the council to admit they’d made a mistake.”

The swipe card scheme was trialled in Battersea and will be extended to Roehampton next year.

Ms Griffin now has a working card, but she was stunned to read an article in the Wandsworth Guardian on July 3, in which the council claimed the scheme had received “no negative feedback”.

At the time, deputy council leader Maurice Heaster said: “There really is no downside to this...The only complaints we’ve had are from people unable to get a card because they don’t live in an area covered by the pilot scheme. Now everyone will be able to use this easy, convenient method.”

After reading about the apparently foolproof card, Ms Griffin said: “There was definitely negative feedback from me, and I wonder who else has had problems.”

A council spokesman said that the claim about negative feedback referred to people’s views the policy as a whole.

He added that a written apology had been sent to Ms Griffin, and that the mistake was caused by a temporary agency staff member.