Police have been criticised for parking in a disabled bay at a supermarket.

Officers parked in the bay at the Marks & Spencer store at Holmbush, Shoreham, despite several other free spaces being available.

At the same time, Stephan Bennett, 41, of Montague Street, Kemp Town, arrived to do his shopping. He saw the officers' car taking up the bay on Thursday evening.

Mr Bennett, who damaged the ligaments in his knee during a fall in 2005, is registered disabled.

He said there were other bays available at the time for the police to park in and that the store's loading bay was also nearby and a better place to park than a disabled bay.

He prints stickers reminding drivers who park illegally in disabled bays that they are there for people who need them.

They read: "You are parking in a disabled bay, please have consideration and park somewhere else."

He said: "Unfortunately I didn't have any on me at the time otherwise I would have slapped one on the police car straight away.

"I waited there for about ten minutes and there was no sign of them.

When I came out of the store about half an hour later they were gone. If they were there on an emergency call, there was no sign of it."

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "The vehicle in question was being used to collect a shoplifter who had been behaving violently towards shop staff.

It's important to stress that if a member of the public does see a police vehicle parked in a disabled bay or double yellow line the chances are that it's responding to an emergency call."

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