You’ll either feel sorry for the motorist at the centre of this story, or have a good laugh at their expense.

In our office, we’re doing a bit of both…

We may all wish that parking was free everywhere, but most of the time we’ll bite the bullet and pay the price because that’s the sensible thing to do.

However, one Alfa Romeo Spider driver in Portsmouth was so determined to avoid the £2 fee that all his common sense left him and he parked on a slipway almost every day before commuting to London – despite all the warnings to keep the area clear for the fishermen and their boats.

Not only did this irritate the fishermen, one of whom stated, “He's not supposed to be here. This area is only for the fishing boys to load their nets but he still parks here every day,” but it also resulted in karma catching up with him.

In this instance karma decided to take the form of the swiftly climbing tide which slowly dragged the £30,000 car out into the salty waves, watched by policemen who could do nothing to help.

Not surprisingly the owner could not be contacted by the police following this incident, but his son-in-law said, “'He's had the car for a few years and it really is his pride and joy. He will be upset when he finds out what's happened to it. It's ridiculous.”

Let this be a lesson to us all – use a designated parking area and don’t tempt Fate, she may be in a bad mood that day.

Labels: car, driver, motorist, parking, Portsmouth, slipway, tide