The owner of Britain’s first openly gay building firm claimed he was threatened with bailiffs for refusing to pay a parking fine, despite CCTV footage appearing to show a traffic warden issuing the ticket in error.

Ray Bulloch, 51, of Sutton Court Road, Plaistow, was slapped with a ticket in June for parking his pink builder’s van in a disabled bay outside his house, despite having a valid blue badge.

CCTV footage seen by the Recorder appears to show a warden immediately removing the issued ticket after the builder’s partner points to the disabled badge in the van’s window.

But Mr Bulloch, who suffers from sciatica, has battled cancer and walks with a stick, was still hit with a £130 fine after the warden apparently failed to notify the council that the ticket had been cancelled.

Mr Bulloch, said: “The warden said he cancelled the ticket so I thought nothing of it but then I got a letter telling me I had to pay the full amount because the discount period was over.”

The R&G LGBT Builders and Property Maintenance owner said he refused to pay the now £195 fine and appealed the decision, telling the council he had CCTV footage of the incident but says this was “always ignored”.

“I contacted them on numerous times but to no luck because the fine ended up increasing,” he said. “They told me that I would be sent a letter threatening bailiff action at some point this month, The whole thing was just ridiculous.”

A spokeswoman for Newham Council admitted that Mr Bulloch was issued the parking ticket “in error”.

She added: “Unfortunately the council was not notified that it needed to be cancelled. Having reviewed the footage which has only just been made available to the council we have cancelled the PCN.

“We are asking our parking enforcement contractor Mouchel to investigate the matter and we apologise to Mr Bulloch for any inconvenience this has caused.”

The council disputes the fact that Mr Bulloch mentioned the footage during the appeals process and claimed the first time they became aware of it was in a letter written outside of the official appeals process on October 1.

Mr Bulloch’s fine has been cancelled after the Recorder flagged the video to the council on Friday.