Mother of two Sarah Twigg definitely got more than she bargained for after a shopping trip to Homebase.

She makes regular trips to the store on Hatfield Road in St Albans and had spent her fair share of money on items for her home over the years.

But there was a shock in store after her latest visit - because she was charged £100 for being 17 minutes over her allotted time in the car park despite spending more than an hour and half browsing in the shop.

Sarah, 30, from Marshalwick, had arrived at the Courtyard Alban Park just before 2pm on January 9 and after parking her Nissan Juke, proceeded to look round Homebase and Dunelm with her two daughters, aged six and nine.

A little under two hours later, the part-time estate agent drove home having bought wallpaper samples and a storage ottoman for her living room at a cost of £35.

Nine days later Sarah received the letter saying she had been charged £100 for going over the allotted parking time, nearly three times the amount she had spent during the shopping expedition.

Sarah called the fine ‘absolutely outrageous’ considering she had shopped in two of the stores on the site, which is also home to a Volkswagen car dealership.

Homebase has since reviewed the situation and scrapped the fine. A spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs Twigg for the parking fine she incurred when shopping with us which has now been fully refunded.

“The car park for our store on Hatfield Road, St Albans is managed by a third party company, who we are liaising with to try and prevent this from happening again.”