War hero, 94, slams council as 'Nazis' for handing him a parking fine after he left his car to help elderly neighbour onto a bus
George Chester 'parked in restricted area for two minutes to help neighbour'
Received ticket from Boston Borough Council for hour-long illegal stop
Grandfather-of-nine defused bombs in WWII, branded councillors 'Nazis'
His appeals have been refused, the penalty has now risen to £105By Mia De Graaf
Published: 15:23, 30 July 2014 | Updated: 18:27, 30 July 2014A 94-year-old war hero has branded his local council ‘Nazis’ for slapping him with a parking fine - after he left his car to help his elderly neighbour onto a bus.
George Chester, who defused dozens of unexploded bombs under London during the Second World War, says he is prepared to go to prison rather than pay the £105 penalty.
And he claims he has proof the ticket was issued illegally after it printed the incorrect time on the notice.
The determined grandfather-of-nine accepts he parked in a restricted area when he dropped his elderly neighbour off at the bus station in Boston, Lincolnshire, on May 16.
He claims he left the car for two minutes when he helped his neighbour board the bus and when he returned he found a yellow parking ticket slapped on his windscreen.
But the time on the £35 fine claimed the violation took place at 12.54pm, when in fact he had dropped off his neighbour at 1.54pm.
Despite appealing the fine - which has now risen to £105 - the council refused to back down and Mr Chester has now been warned he faces legal action if he does not cough up.
But defiant Mr Chester, who lives in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, said: 'The council don’t frighten me.
'They can say what they want but I know I wasn’t anywhere near Boston at the time they say - I can prove it because my neighbour’s bus ticket states she got on the bus at 1.54pm.
'They made a mistake and they are trying to make me pay for it.
'They’re acting like bullying Nazis. Well, they don’t scare me. I dealt with a lot worse things in the war.
'I used to dig down 40 feet to defuse unexploded bombs. Some of them weighed a tonne if they’d gone up they would have taken half of London with them.
'The council should try doing that job.
'I only tell the truth, I wasn’t in Boston at 12.54.
'I’m not going to pay the fine. If I’d paid at first it would have been £35. Now, it’s £105. It’s not the cost.
'They can take me to court. If it means going to jail then I’ll go to jail.
'When I got back to the car, the Enforcement Officer was putting the ticket on the windscreen.
'I tried to explain to him what had happened but he didn’t want to know.
'He gave me the ticket and then walked off, he was a right so-and-so.
'I was upset and it’s only when I looked at the ticket and saw it was issued at 12.54pm.
'If, as the council says, the ticket was rightly issued at 12.54pm, that means I must have parked outside the bus station for over an hour.
'That’s not right, I was there two or three minutes at most.
'There are plenty of people who saw us when we were still in Horncastle at 12.54pm who will swear on oath they saw me nowhere near the bus station.'
Today, Boston Borough Council, who are responsible for the bus station, refused to back down on the fine.
A spokesman said: 'When Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) are issued, photographic evidence is usually taken by the Civil Enforcement Officer to evidence the offence.
'Whilst it is not appropriate to comment on individual cases in the public domain, there is a process available to anyone who wishes to dispute a PCN can ask that the matter be heard by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal which is an independent body that listens to evidence from both parties and then makes a decision on the case based on the evidence that is presented to them.'
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