OUTRAGED student Antony Weller has vowed never to pay a parking ticket stuck on his car after workmen tried to paint yellow lines underneath the parked vehicle.

Before leaving for the Easter holidays, the University of Central Lancashire first year student left his Ford Fiesta parked in Victoria Street, Preston - on the side where there were no yellow lines.

But workmen faced with the parked vehicle simply drew new lines around it - splashing the tyres with the heavy-duty yellow paint.

Then, to add insult to injury, a traffic warden slapped a £20 fixed penalty notice on the car, despite the fact that the Fiesta's tyres weren't resting on the barely-dry paint.

Now Antony, 28, reading a BA in Journalism at the university, has written to Preston's fixed penalty department refusing to pay the fine.

He said: "The gearbox had packed in just before Easter, so I left the car parked somewhere legal - by the time I came back it was illegally parked.

"I was absolutely astonished when I saw they had tried to paint under my wheels. There are still yellow splashes on the wheels to prove it.

"Now they are fining me £20, but I'm not paying it. They can take this as far as they like. I have written to them and told them." Hard-up Antony, from Crawley in Sussex, claims he hasn't got enough cash to pay for his car's repairs, never mind the fine. But he declared: "Even if I had the money I would still complain because it's the principle I disagree with."

Sgt Moxham in Preston Police's traffic department said: "It does seem rather unusual - normally we would put out 'no waiting' cones to prevent people parking there before contractors went in.

"We would have to investigate it which we haven't done yet because we are waiting to receive correspondence from him."

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