A DISABLED pensioner has spoken of his anger after the council gave him a £105 ticket - despite him being a blue badge holder.

Leonard Binks, 76, from Southern Drive in Loughton was shocked to discover a ticket on his Ford Escort after leaving it in a disabled parking bay on the Broadway for five minutes in late November.

Mr Binks, who suffers from mobility problems said: ”I came back to the car and there was a warden there, I said ’but I’m a badge holder’ and he said ‘where’s your badge?’ so I opened the door and it had fallen to the floor.”

Instead of cancelling the ticket however, the warden told Mr Binks he would make a note of the badge when filing his report.

A week later Mr Binks was rushed to Whipps Cross Hospital with heart problems, and was kept in under observation for two weeks.

During that time his wife Doris, 77, received a ‘threatening’ letter from the district council telling her she owed £105 in fines.

Mrs Binks was told that this figure would rise to £150 if she did not pay immediately.

A distressed Mrs Binks immediately paid the fine- the equivalent of more than a week’s pension for the elderly couple.

Mr Binks did not discover the situation until he was released from another stay in hospital this week.

He said: “I will consider contesting this, it was a threatening letter and it upset my wife - I’m already stressed and I have medical problems, it was a bit of a shock to both of us.”

Last week the Epping Forest Guardian revealed that the council had made more than £1.5 million from parking fines in the past three years, and that the number of driver penalised has raised across the district by just under 5,000 in 2008.