POLICE say an officer who returned to their vehicle to find a parking ticket on the windscreen was the victim of a practical joke.

Posting on social media, Lymington and New Milton police said: "You may be aware of a picture being circulated that was taken in Lymington High Street on Tuesday afternoon.

"I would just like to clarify that the officer who parked the vehicle did not get a parking ticket, as the vehicle was parked legally and the envelope actually contained an empty Kit Kat wrapper, in what we would describe as a bit of 'high jinks' by a member of the public.

"On a busy day of completing enquiries in relation to the public order incident that had occurred the day before, with not much opportunity to 'Have a break', it did cheer us up (An actual Kit Kat would have cheered us up more!)

"Pictures aren't always what they seem to be."

Earlier Sir Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West had tweeted a picture of the car outside Tesco Express.

Believing the parking ticket to be genuine he captioned the image ‘Opps!’.

Police cars can be issued with penalty charge notices if they are parked illegally.

The parking spaces outside Tesco in Lymington are pay and display between the hours of 9am and 6pm, requiring anyone who parks in them to pay for a ticket at a machine and place the ticket in their car.