Pensioner Bill Parsonage was left fuming after clampers almost ruined his Christmas.

After finding a space in a Maidstone car park, the 65-year-old paid £3 for a four-hour ticket and displayed it in his windscreen.

He returned well within the time limit.

But he fell victim to clampers anyway, because he had not spotted that 10 spaces in the Mote Road car park are reserved for tenants of Midhurst Court - and he was in one of them.

Mr Parsonage, of Ulcombe Hill, Ulcombe, said: “It was not obvious to me that I shouldn’t have parked there. You’d think they would put down a different colour Tarmac or something to distinguish the reserved spaces. I feel as though I’ve been mugged.

“I had a valid ticket and I tried to persuade the man to show a little Christmas cheer, but it was pointless.

“I asked him what or earth he was doing clamping people on Christmas Eve and he smirked and said he’d be back on Christmas Day too.”

Mr Parsonage had to pay a £150 fine to have his car released.

But Paul Manley, the owner of clamping company AM Secure Services, said: “I have some sympathy with the driver, season of goodwill and all that. But you have to understand it is on just such days the residents of Midhurst Court have the biggest problems with shoppers parking in their spot.

“We have done everything that we are legally required to do. Our signs are twice the size they have to be. No one can be unaware that they shouldn’t park in these bays without a permit."

Of the 10 bays reserved for visitors to Midhurst Court most have an eye-level sign that would be clearly seen by a driver saying: “Warning: Wheel Clamp Area.” But the signs do not specify that it is a residents’ parking zone.

One higher warning sign advises that the bays are reserved, but a second sign has been vandalised and is unreadable.