AT FOUR in the morning there are lots of parking spaces available at the Tesco shop in Orpington.

But, as this picture shows, police officers in a patrol car still decided to use a disabled space when visiting the store’s security office.

The vehicle was snapped by a nightshift worker while on his break who says he saw one of the officers walking leisurely through the supermarket.

A Bromley police spokesman says the officers had been called to reports of vehicle tampering in Orpington High Street and were in the store to see if the CCTV showed anything useful.

He added: “Under normal circumstances police vehicles would not park in disabled parking spaces.

“There are, however, occasions when police officers need to park quickly and safely to attend an incident or to speak to someone.

“No offence was being committed, as the parking bay is on private property and not a public highway.”