Motorist fined for having a parking ticket because the traffic warden could not tell the time

A traffic warden was caught ticketing innocent motorists - because he couldn't tell the time. He used a calculator to work out the expiry time of Dave Alsop's ticket, without realising the device worked in decimals and not minutes and hours.

Mr Alsop, 29, parked near Torquay harbour, Devon, at 2.49pm and paid £1.20 for 75 minutes, covering him until 4.04pm.

But when he returned at 3.41pm, he discovered a £50 fine on his car. He found the warden and showed him the parking ticket, which clearly had time left on it.



The warden disagreed and tried to prove his point with a calculator. He tapped in 14.49 and added 0.75 to produce a total of 15.24, claiming this meant Mr Alsop's ticket had expired at 3.24pm, some 17 minutes before he returned to his car.

Mr Alsop, of Torquay, said: 'I tried to explain but he didn't have a clue. He just carried on doing other cars parked there.'

Happily for Mr Alsop, Torbay council waived the fee and apologised. It said: 'The civil enforcement officer is new.'