A MUM was stunned when she was fined £70 for using a car park twice in four hours to pick up her son.

Kim Bradberry took her son to work at Gala bingo, in Clacton, and parked at Aldi, in Pier Avenue.

She left the car park at 11.25am and returned at 3.18pm to pick up her son.

The car park, managed by company ParkingEye, has a four hour no-return policy, which landed Mrs Bradberry with a fine.

She said: “I only left it three hours and 53 minutes before returning.

“This £70 fine is a lot of money for coming back seven minutes too early. It seems incredibly petty, especially when I often use the shop.

“I can’t afford another £70 expense at Christmas time.

“It is the worst possible time for it. Things are stretched enough as it is.”

Mrs Bradberry, 50, of Garden Road, Jaywick, said she feels conned and will not use the Aldi store again.

She said: “It’s overzealous. It is despicable to make people pay like this. I don’t feel like I have done anything wrong.”

A ParkingEye spokesman said: "Parking Eye was engaged by Aldi because its car park was suffering from parking abuse, including incidents of cars being left for lengthy periods, or all day, meaning that genuine shoppers couldn’t find parking spaces.

"Obviously this issue becomes even more important during the busy Christmas period when demand is particularly high.

"However Parking Eye operates an audited appeals process and encourages people to appeal if they feel there are mitigating circumstances."