A WEST FIFE mum has been hit with a £100 parking fine after she visited the same car park twice in one day. 

Paula Jeffrey, from Carnock, had driven through the Carnegie Retail Park on her way to Pure Gym and left around an hour later after her workout.

Later that day, her husband popped into Home Bargains with their children in the early evening after their swimming lesson.

But now they’ve been hit with a £100 penalty as operators Civil Enforcement Ltd say they exceeded the maximum two-hour parking limit.

To make things worse, Paula said the pictures shown as evidence on the parking charge notice show them entering the car park at the two different times – one in the morning near Pure Gym and later through the entrance near B&Q.

“They cannot get away with this,” she said.

“They are getting money off people when they haven’t done anything wrong at all.

"I wouldn’t mind paying if I had overstayed but I didn’t.

"I could not have left my car there all afternoon as I had to be back in Carnock to get my kids from school.

“I can’t be in two places at once and they haven’t even bothered to check.

“I had gone in the morning and my husband had gone in the afternoon. It was different drivers. If they checked, they would see we left the car park.

"My husband tried to contact them but they were not helpful and said they couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t let us see the footage because it is a private site.”

The couple paid the fine due to worries about it affecting their credit rating but Paula said they wanted to raise awareness of the issue in the hope of it preventing it happening to others.

“I daren’t go through that way anymore, it is not worth the risk,” she added. “We can’t be the only people who this has happened to. They do say you can go back after two hours as well but I am scared to go back.”

The Jeffreys appealed to Civil Enforcement Ltd in the hope that they would reverse their decision, however, they responded to say that “after consideration”, they had decided not to reverse their decision.

The letter added: “The parking charge remains valid as the ticket was correctly issued in accordance with the terms and conditions stated. Payment must therefore be made without delay.”

The Press was unable to contact Civil Enforcement Ltd before going to print.