WHEN Vincent Ryan spotted the yellow and black sticker on his car windscreen he thought somebody was playing a joke.The 40-year-old RNLI worker still had an hour remaining on his car park ticket at the NCP owned car park in Ipswich.

WHEN Vincent Ryan spotted the yellow and black sticker on his car windscreen he thought somebody was playing a joke.

The 40-year-old RNLI worker still had an hour remaining on his car park ticket at the NCP owned car park in Ipswich.

But on closer inspection it was clear it was not lack of timekeeping that had led to his misfortune, it was because he had displayed his ticket upside down.

Mr Ryan, of Shaftesbury Avenue, Dovercourt, near Harwich is fuming after receiving a parking ticket for displaying his car park ticket upside down in the car park behind the Co-operative store.

He arrived at the car park with his wife Suphap at 2.26pm on Monday

for a Christmas shopping trip and bought a ticket for two hours.

However when the couple returned to their car, they were horrified to find a parking notice in a waterproof packet had been stuck to the windscreen.

Despite the fact there was no category for displaying a ticket upside down on the notice, the warden had ticked the 'other' box and explained his reasons beneath. The couple now face a £30 fine.

Mr Ryan said: "It's ridiculous. I thought it was a joke to start with. I thought it was just someone messing around.

"My ticket was on the dashboard but must have been upside down. The ticket is white and you can see it very clearly. You would have to have pretty bad eyesight not to."

The ticket said Mr Ryan has until 21 days to pay the £30 fine.

He is now writing to the company to dispute the car parking ticket.

A spokesman for the car park company said last night: "NCP takes all complaints seriously. We do not have a record of this incident but we will investigate the claim and cancel the ticket if we establish it was issued by mistake."