We all hate getting parking tickets don't we?

You know, that sickening moment when you're coming back with a load of shopping you grabbed from the supermarket in 30 degree heat after a busy meeting - and you're due to pick up your kids from nursery in five minutes.

It's like a punch in the stomach when you peer through the back windscreen hoping there won't be a horrible sticker on the wind shield, but of course there is.

Well help is at hand! Get West London submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Hounslow Council to get hold of the the numbers of tickets handed out for the parking offences most often committed by drivers in Hounslow in the 2017/18 financial year.

Hopefully this means you get a better idea of the types of things not to do when attempting to - lawfully of course - park your car, to make sure you don't get done in future.

You can also see just how much cash the council collected from drivers over the past year for each offence to make you even more determined not to give them any more of your hard earned cash.

Here you go:

10: Loading or unloading in a restricted area - 1738 fines - £74,857 collected

9) No valid parking permit - 1923 cases - £68,355 collected

8) Parking in a disabled bay without a permit - 2093 fines - £84,086 collected

7) Parking next to a dropped kerb, 3588 fines - £150, 231 collected

6) No valid Pay & Display ticket - 4134 fines - £87,022 collected

5) Illegally parking outside a school - 4584 fines - £232,781 collected

4) Parking in a bus lane - 4890 fines - £253, 192 collected

3) No valid permit or ticket - 7898 fines - £327,481 collected

2) Parking with wheels on the pavement - 9265 fines - £444,912 collected

1) Parking on a restricted route - 16,289 fines, £920,143 collected

It looks like parking in restricted routes is our absolute favourite...you know, the ones where there is a big circular red and blue sign with a diagonal stripe through it which means no parking.

We also seem to love parking with our wheels on the pavement, which comes in at number two with an impressive 9,265 fines collected in one year. It's the one where you were only just going to be a minute and rushed into your friend's house to pick up a lost mobile phone, but they kept you chatting about their wedding plans....yaaawn!

And at number three it's simply that you didn't have a valid permit to park somewhere where you needed one. Again there is no real excuse for this as there are usually big signs up saying 'residents' parking only', but who has the time to look at those right....

Well we hope this has been helpful and might help you avoid some of the most common hazards. ...But if in doubt, we suggest you take the tube.

We'll post some data for other boroughs here soon so you won't get stung elsewhere in west London.

Happy parking.