A motorist has been handed several parking fines after a council contractor painted a disabled bay around his legally parked car.
The driver had left his car parked on an unrestricted stretch of road outside his property in Croydon, south London, before going on holiday.
But he returned home to find he had been issued with multiple parking fines after council workers created a new disabled parking space around his vehicle.
CCTV footage shared to social media shows the moment a contractor arrived to paint lines for the bay on November 17.
In the video, the worker can be seen taking measurements and applying paint to mark out the space.
It cuts to a clip of a traffic warden who then takes photos of the car before a ticket is left on the windscreen.
A total of four penalty charge notices were left on the vehicle between November 22 and 26, the BBC reports.
The motorist told the broadcaster: “It really put a damper on my holiday because I kept checking [the camera] to see what was wrong and there was nothing I could do.
A council worker could be seen measuring and painting the parking bay in footage captured on November 17
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“I didn’t want to go out and do the things I wanted to do because I was worried about the amount of tickets I was accumulating.”
Upon sharing the video to social media, the man accused Croydon Council of “making up the rules” and causing “stress” and “anxiety just because they can”.
The local authority said it was “standard practice” for a contractor to paint around the car, rather than wait for the space to become vacant.
It confirmed the parking tickets had not been processed into fines.
CCTV footage captured the moment a traffic warden took photos of the car parked in the newly created parking bay
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A council spokesman said: “Our road markings contractor painted lines for a new disabled bay on November 17 in response to a request from a resident.
“The contractor painted around a car, as is standard practice, otherwise they would have to wait for the space to be free, which may have taken weeks.
“The contractor took a picture of the car, so we knew not to give the owner a fine.
“Unfortunately, one of our parking attendants was not informed and issued parking tickets.
“However, these were not processed into fines because we had a note on the system from our contractor.
“The tickets were cancelled a week before the video was uploaded to social media, and we have apologised for the confusion.”
The council also said its parking attendant had received abuse following the incident.
It continued: “It is unacceptable that our parking attendant has received verbal abuse online.
“We ask that any residents with concerns should contact the [council] directly and not abuse any member of staff carrying out their duties.”