ACAn irate motorist drove off from stunned traffic wardens with a Denver Boot attached to his car after being caught with a dodgy tax disc.

Furious Ross Keenan decided to take the law into his own hands when the wardens refused to accept his plea that he had only bought the car a few days earlier and didn't realise the tax disc was fake, Bradford magistrates heard.

And so he drove off from Carrington Street in Bradford with the partly-attached clamp still on his wheel. It fell off and became damaged as the car drove over it and he returned moments later to continue the row, the court heard.

Keenan - who had bought the F-registered Rover a few days earlier - was unaware that the disc was a "very convincing" laser copy, the magistrates were told.

The Department of Transport is now using clamping to crack down on road tax dodgers, the court heard.

In mitigation, solicitor Andrew Walker said: "This was every motorist's worst nightmare -- to come out of a shop and find somebody has clamped your vehicle.

"It was accepted at the scene that he had been conned over the disc. But ten seconds after finding him there, the vehicle had been clamped.

"It is an absolutely ludicrous state of affairs. If someone has been duped into thinking their car is taxed, one would think there would be a little bit of leeway in favour of that person."

He said Keenan got angry when the clampers started damaging the wheel trim on his car.

"He did the only thing he thought he could do in the circumstances and drove off before the clamp could be firmly attached. He felt he had done nothing wrong," Mr Walker said.

"I feel this could all have been handled in a completely different way."

Keenan, 32, formerly of Undercliffe, Bradford, admitted causing criminal damage to a Denver Boot belonging to Liverpool-based Sureway Parking Services and was conditionally discharged for a year and ordered to pay £180 compensation.

Afterwards he said: "I couldn't believe it all happened like that. I thought they should have given me some leeway."