COMPANY boss Martin Leach was "rude, irate and intimidating" when he was issued a ticket for parking on a double yellow line while he went to the bank in a busy market town, a court heard yesterday.

Leach, the 38-year-old managing director of Trafalgar Packaging, of Starbeck, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, told the traffic warden and a police officer she called in as back-up after an earlier altercation with him, that he had "permission from the chief constable of Knaresborough" to leave his black Volvo in the town's Market Place.

When the officers tried to get more details, he pushed his way into the car and drove off with the door open, Andrew Stranex, prosecuting, told Harrogate magistrates.

Mr Stranex said Leach, who was not in court for the hearing, had claimed in a letter to the Crown Prosecution Service that he suffered from "heightened nervousness" around banks after witnessing one being robbed.

Leach, of Tannerbeck House, Main Street, Staveley, near Knaresborough, was found guilty of waiting in a prohibited zone and failing to stop as directed by a police officer. He was fined a total of £165, with £45 costs.

A third allegation of failing to give his name and address to a constable was dismissed.

Traffic warden Tracy Gordon said Leach had turned "rude, irate, impatient, aggressive and intimidating", said Mr Stranex.