AN OAKLEY man has hit out after being issued with a parking ticket for a Dunfermline car park – despite not having actually parked in it.

Roy Hodgson used the car park at the Carnegie Retail Park as a short cut to get to his work at nearby CR Smith and was baffled to have a letter through the post demanding £60 – or £100 if not paid within two weeks – because he had exceeded the maximum two hours' free parking.

The letter informed him he had entered the area at 8.52am and left it just after 8pm even though Roy's car was parked for the majority of the day in his work parking spot nearby.

He has now sent a letter of appeal to Civil Enforcements Ltd to inform them of their mistake.

"I pass through in the morning to go to work and pass through going home at night," he told the Press. "The two times it has picked me up is the two times I have been passing through the car park. I have not even been in a parking bay.

"I don't know if they are just chancing their luck hoping I had been parked there all that time.

"It is a thoroughfare. If you go to my work, that road can be quite tight and I have used that way a lot. You are allowed to pass through. They have put the hours and they are hoping I have parked there all day because they have seen me and are saying I exceeded the two-hour parking limit but I didn't even park.

"It gets you thinking how many people get them and just pay. It can get people a bit worried. Loads of people come and go through that way."

Back in January, Carnock mum Paula Jeffrey contacted the Press after she was hit with a £100 fine.

She had driven through the retail park on her way to the Pure Gym where she spent approximately an hour and her husband stopped off at Home Bargains later that day.

However, the operators said they had exceeded the maximum two-hour parking limit as it didn't take into account that the car had left in the morning and returned with a different driver in the early evening.

Last October, B&Q intervened to get Navy Veteran amputee Chris Souden's fine cancelled.

Mr Souden, an amputee, had provided evidence that his condition was the cause of his long stay but the company didn't accept his appeal. It was, however, overturned after the DIY retailers stepped in for him.

The Press was unable to contact Civil Enforcement Ltd for a statement about Mr Hodgson's fine before going to print.