This is Joe Lycett. He is a stand up comedian who came up with the greatest ever way to get out of a parking ticket.
Joe told the story earlier this year on Channel 4 mash-up show 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
He was “up North doing a show” – the city being our own fair York – and returned to his car to find a parking ticket.
So he emailed City of York Council asking for evidence of illegal parking.
Colin from the council’s Freedom Of Information team emailed back with that evidence, namely “photographs of your car clearly parked in a taxi rank”.
Here is the photograph:
To which Joe countered:
PS Apologies for the delay in replying to your previous email, I am currently on the Costa del Sol. I have provided evidence of this.
And here is Joe’s evidence:
But Colin at York council hadn’t given up. He emailed Joe back:
Joe was ready for this.
To which Colin simply replied:
I have cancelled the fine.
Sincerely,
Colin
Hatching a plan
On Wednesday (November 4) Joe returned to York for a stand-up gig at The Duchess. He was pleased to be back, as he posted on Facebook…
And at the end of his gig, he took the whole audience out to the scene of the entire drama and took this photograph:
And the moment of triumph became all the sweeter a moment later:
It was also pretty lol when a taxi actually drove past pic.twitter.com/id8uAaGIjd
— Joe Lycett (@joelycett) November 5, 2015
So you know what to do next time you get a parking ticket. Tell the council you were parked on the moon – and they’ll cancel the fine!
You can see the original tale here.