A FURIOUS motorist has called for an investigation after he was given a fine when double yellow lines were painted around his car.

After parking his car in Wellington Road on Thursday, August 11, Kio Rostamian returned the next morning to find that lines had been painted where there were none visible previously.

Later that day he found a £70 penalty notice on his windscreen, along with two warning letters dated from the Wednesday and Thursday which he claims were not there before.

Bury Council has since overturned the parking charge following the 33-year-old’s appeal, on the grounds that the previous lines were badly faded. The council maintained that the warning notices were left in the two days prior to the penalty charge notice being issued.

Mr Rostamian, of Manchester Road, said: “My girlfriend and I were having to park on the street because we were getting our driveway done.

“There were other cars that were parked there as well and there were no visible yellow lines.

“Then I went to the car on the Friday and there were double yellow lines there, without any warning.

“Part of the road is restricted parking, but there was a space of 30m or so for cars to park without a permit.

“Later on the Friday, we found two letters from the council saying that the road lining works would be carried out, and they were backdated to the Wednesday and Thursday.

“It looks to me like both letters were written at the same time because the imprint of the pen on one could clearly be seen on the other.

“If you are going to do that to people, it is a con. There needs to be an investigation into what has happened here.”

After successfully appealing against the fine, Mr Rostamian is urging the council to take further action.

He said: “They could not have left the letters there on the Wednesday or Thursday because we were not parked there. I want there to be a proper inquest to be held into this.”

A Bury Council spokesman said: “There have been double yellow lines on Wellington Road for a long time. We decided to re-paint these yellow lines because they were becoming very faded, and an order was given to our contractors to carry this out.

“One of our parking enforcement officers issued this car with a penalty ticket on 12th August because it was parked on double yellow lines. We received an appeal from the car owner about this and, given the faded nature of the previous yellow lines, have decided to allow his appeal as a gesture of goodwill. The car has since been moved and the job to re-paint the lines has been completed.

“We know nothing about these ‘advance notice’ letters which were apparently put on this car – they were not issued by Bury Council, and are headed Manchester City Council. Furthermore, our re-lining contractors tell us that they never post notices like this on parked cars. We will continue to make enquiries.”