Police riot van caught parking in disabled bay

A Nottinghamshire police officer has been slapped with a parking ticket, after parking a riot van in a disabled bay.

Eight police officers left the vehicle and visited a Taco Bell restaurant to buy burritos - but were spotted by an outraged local man, whose partner is disabled.

He sent photographs to Nottinghamshire Police, who later confirmed that the officer who had been driving the van had been given a fixed penalty notice.

"If it was an emergency I wouldn't mind but they were just going in to get some burritos. I made a fuss because it's one rule for us and other for them," Stephen Roberts, 42, tells the Mirror.

"What made it even worse is there's a new police station just three minutes walk from there, with reserved spaces and everything."

It's by no means the first time that police officers have been caught parking in disabled bays. Several websites and Facebook pages exist to allow people to 'name and shame' people that abuse the blue badge system, and they regularly feature those who should know better.

Recently, Lorraine Hillier, the Mayor of Henley, managed to cause gridlock in the town centre after parking in a loading bay at Sainsbury's. Because of a drainage lorry parked opposite it was impossible for other cars to pass.

We recently reported on a case in which a traffic warden in Stockport was caught on camera leaving his own car on double yellow lines. Apparently he was doing it in order to issue a ticket to a car illegally parked in a disabled bay - which made it legally permissible as long as there was nowhere better to park nearby.

However, when one London woman caught two mounted police officers 'parking' their horses in a disabled bay earlier this year, she saw the funny side - and accepted that they weren't breaking the law.