A SON is furious after his seriously-ill mum was hit with a fine – for parking in a disabled bay.
Andrew Phillips, whose mum Brenda suffers from a brain aneurysm, was handed the £60 fine despite the pensioner having a disabled parking badge.
He was penalised after leaving his car for only a few minutes to retrieve the badge from his mum who was shopping at the Great Northern Retail Park in Huddersfield.
Mr Phillips, of Golcar, said: “I am really angry. My mum had forgotten to give me her badge and when I went into the shop to get it off her I came back to find a fine on my car.
“The car parking attendant must have been watching me because I was only gone a few minutes.”
The metal worker was hit with the fine when he took his mum and dad Trevor to the shops so they could buy a new cooker.
They were just about to leave when Mrs Phillips, 71, spotted an offer in Currys and her son pulled up in a disabled bay near the entrance so she wouldn’t have to walk far.
He said: “There had been a lot of snow and the roads were really slippery with ice. My mum also can’t walk very far so I dropped her and dad off at the door and parked in one of the bays.
“My mum always carries a disabled badge around with her for when me or my brother or sister take her places and then puts it back in her bag.
“When she got out the car I realised that she hadn’t given me the badge and I went into the shop to find her.
“It was really busy and it took me a few minutes to see where she was.
“We went back to the car together.
“I was driving down the road when I noticed the ticket on the car. I went back to the shop to show the staff the badge but they couldn’t help because the car park is run by another company.”
Mr Phillips called UKCPS Ltd, which manages the Leeds Road car park, but said he was told he would have to pay the fine before appealing.
The company later told him they were upholding the fine – which his frail mum insisted on paying for.
He said: “I asked them if they had ever made a mistake, but they said because the badge wasn’t on display the fine stood.
“I’m angry that they couldn’t make an exception. I would never use a disabled bay if I was out by myself.
“They must have seen my mum get out of the car and it’s obvious that she’s not in the best of health.
“She has been very upset by this whole thing. They’ve now lost customers because we will never go back to that complex again.”
A spokesman for UKCPS Ltd said: “As a responsible company we take all appeals seriously and look at the circumstances of each individual case.
“If Mr Phillips was to contact us again we can re-examine his particular circumstances.”
