Calm of the Isles of Scilly shattered after fake parking ticket stuck on golf buggy

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 leaped 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. There are no yellow parking lines where he stopped on Garrison Lane, alongside the Wesleyan Chapel wall, although stopping in that space did mean some motorists had a tight squeeze to get past. 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 said the recipient of the 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 offense which is triable summarily with a maximum of six months imprisonment and or a fine.”