IT could be mistaken for a You've Been Framed TV practical joke - a parked car blocked in by a newly installed bus shelter.

But no one is laughing: certainly not the owner of the car who legally parked on the privately owned frontage of his own offices on Teesside.

Workmen installing the shelter saw the car arrive and park up, but carried on with their work - and sandwiched him in.

Now the enraged owner has been forced to watch as passers-by - annoyed at having their path blocked - have kicked and scratched his pride and joy.

The shelter, owned by Adshel, was erected on the council-owned section of pavement immediately in front of the strip owned by the Marske Machine Company, owner of the car and York House where it was parked.

A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council, which hired contractors to erect the shelter, said: "We always try and resolve these situations amicably and reasonably and if the driver wanted, we could give him advice on moving the car, but we are not moving the bus stop.

"What we have done is legal. We wrote to the property owners telling them of our intentions and they objected.

"We took the view that by putting in a raised kerb and providing a better bus shelter we would help a lot of old and disabled people get on and off the bus.

"People who park directly outside the property can still get access to their parking space."

The impasse means that pedestrians are having to making a detour round the front of the shelter, some stepping out into the road.

Marske Machine Company's solicitor Tony Atha said: "It's not our client's car causing the problem, it's the bus shelter."