On the remote and picturesque Isles of Scilly, dubbed the “land that crime forgot”, police have launched a manhunt for a bogus traffic warden.
Officers leapt into action after a man went to the tiny police station on the archipelago’s main island of St Mary’s concerned that a parking ticket had been slapped on his hired golf-style buggy.
Police assured him that he had been parked legally and that the ticket was the work of a fraudster. They have warned they consider the ticket a possible act of malicious communication, an offence that carries a maximum of six months in jail.
Lying around 30 miles off the tip of Cornwall and surrounded by crystal-clear blue water, the Isles of Scilly are one of the more peaceful corners of the British Isles.
Sgt Colin Taylor, who has a cult following on social media, describes his patch as “like Heartbeat but less frenetic” on his Twitter profile. Recent jobs he and his fellow officers have had to tackle include rushing to the aid of a stray seal pup that had found its way on to the high street and resolving a drunken row between two chefs on the relative merits of rock and sea salt.
The inquiry into the fake ticket touched a nerve because on New Year’s Eve in 2011 a wag dressed up as a traffic warden and placed home-made parking tickets on cars in Hugh Town, the main town on St Mary’s. Police were accused of “draconian” policing until it was revealed to be a harmless prank.
Taylor said the recipient of the latest fake ticket had been caused “distress and anxiety” and was “visibly relieved” when he was told he was in the clear.
Writing on the Isles of Scilly police’s Facebook page, Taylor said: “He cheered up when we said that we took a dim view of this and in the circumstances did not consider it a prank. He was even happier that we do consider it an act of malicious communication, an offence which is triable summarily with a maximum of six months imprisonment and or a fine.”
