A man in Britain, irritated with his neighbours’ habit of parking their cars on the pavement meant for the general public to walk, acted as a traffic warden and sent them 150 fake summons.
Christopher Povey, 41, created the tickets (summons) on his computer after downloading bogus documentation from an online joke shop. He would go out late at night to ‘book’ cars parked in his neighbourhood, the Daily Express reported.
He issued 150 fines in a fake parking ticket scam, a court heard.
In the morning, the owners would wake up to find the bills on their windscreens from the Greater Manchester Highways Safety Monitoring Partnership.
Tickets warned that the fine “for obstructing the pavement with a parked car” would be 35 pounds, rising to 60 pounds if not paid within 10 days.
Povey was arrested for fraud after the drivers alerted police in Greater Manchester’s Sale town.
In the court, Povey said he did all this after noticing a mother pushing her baby in a pram was nearly knocked down by a car because of vehicles obstructing the pavement.
District judge Mark ÂHadfield told Povey that he was doing what one would expect a traffic warden to do.
“I accept the general concern for parking. But you acted in a Âdishonest way to obtain money from the owners of motor vehicles. It seems to me your account has inherent weaknesses.”
At Trafford Magistrates’ Court, Povey denied fraud by misrepresentation but was found guilty.