A 95-YEAR-OLD Stanmore motorist has maintained his umblemished driving record by overturning his first ever parking ticket.
Joseph Wolmark, of White House Drive, won his appeal to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PTAS) by default on May 7 when Harrow Council chose not to contest the case.
Afterwards, the retired butcher said: "I've been driving for 70 years and I txxxght the council were more or less calling me a liar. I feel I deserve an apology."
Mr Wolmark received a ticket and a £50 fine in December in Court Drive, Stanmore, for allowing his car to partially block a dropped kerb.
But the pensioner maintains that when he returned to his vehicle after a spot of shopping, he found no ticket attached to the windscreen and believes it could have been blown away by the wind and rain.
The first thing he knew about the contravention was when a follow-up letter arrived in January urging him to pay.
"I went up to the council officers and asked if I could speak to someone to explain, but they said only to write in," he recalls.
"I said I was prepared to swear on the Bible there was no ticket on my car but they didn't want to know.
"I felt if they wouldn't accept me swearing on the Bible, they were calling me a liar and at 95 years of age, I resent that."
He appealed to PATS and they informed him on the morning of the hearing that the council was not contesting the case.
A Harrow Council spokesman said: "The ticket was affixed to the car and this fact is recorded in the parking attendant's notes and photos taken at the scene.
"However, after considering the mitigation, we decided to not contest the appeal. It is standard procedure for the appeal hearing to notify those whose appeals are not being contested."
