A HEAVILY-pregnant mum was fined for parking in a disabled bay outside a Huddersfield shop the day before she was due to give birth.

Gail Lock, 37, who was suffering severe pregnancy pains, was making a last-minute trip to buy baby clothes from Next at the Great Northern Retail Park, off Leeds Road.

She and husband David, 35, pulled into the disabled bay and went into the shop.

When the couple, of Heaton Avenue, Kirkheaton, returned they found a ticket for £75 attached to the windscreen.

Mr Lock said: “I parked as close to the customer door of Next as I could – a disabled bay – to assist my wife’s plight.

“I understand these spaces are valuable to disabled drivers because my father is one.

“We briefly discussed whether we should go shopping, given her condition, but she assured me it would only take a few minutes.

“We left the shop 10 minutes later to find a parking ticket on the windscreen.

“This said I had been parked illegally in the disabled parking bay.

“The person issuing the ticket must have watched my wife struggle to the shop and immediately slapped a ticket on my windscreen. There was no use of discretion whatsoever.”

Mr Lock said there were three other empty disabled spaces.

He said he would be appealing against the fine.

“I fully accept there were alternative parking bays, albeit no mother and baby bays, but my decision to park ‘illegally’ was based on concern for my wife,” he added.

“May I congratulate the parking company on a shrewd business opportunity.

“Unfortunately I will no longer be shopping at the retail park and the ultimate loser will be the businesses.”

Jim Whitehead, from UKCPS, which runs the car park, said there were strict rules about parking in disabled bays.

He added: “Disabled bays are for people with genuine disabilities and if people abuse them they should accept the consequences. Being pregnant is not a disability.

“If you are well enough to go shopping, you should be well enough to walk the extra few steps from a normal parking bay.

“This is something I feel very strongly about.

“If it were down to me, people who parked in disabled bays without a valid permit would get three points on their licence as well.”