A Dover businessman has won his appeal against a conviction of harassing a traffic warden.

John Rose had claimed the official had become a thorn in his side after dishing out £225 worth of parking tickets.

But when he decided to take action to prove his claims against Tracy Edwards, the 47-year-old ended up in court.

Mr Rose – boss of The Accommodation Shop, in Worthington Street – was quizzed by police and later convicted of harassing Ms Edwards... and told to pay her £75 compensation.

But today he left court...smelling of roses...after Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl – sitting with two magistrates – upheld the appeal and quashed the conviction.

After the hearing Mr Rose said: “This has been a nightmare but finally I have got justice.

“This has been a nightmare but finally I have got justice." - John Rose

“But I have now changed my parking habits. I always accepted that I had parked illegally but she made my life a misery.”

The businessman also thanked the taxi driver who came forward to give evidence in support of his claims.

“I made a mistake of representing myself in the magistrates court but for the appeal I contacted the firm of Haskells at Ashford, it was the best thing. They treated me like a human being and my barrister was from the top drawer.”

Mr Rose had also ordered him to perform 120 hours of unpaid work for the community – that was also scrapped.

Ms Edwards had alleged the businessman swore in front of her and took photographs as she worked.

But Mr Rose claimed all he was doing was trying to get evidence the traffic warden had handed out a penalty notice on his vehicle - but ignored another car that was parked illegally.

He said he told her: "Hey, I know I had parked on a double yellow line, I won't deny that, but can I point something out? Firstly, I believe you have been discriminating against me."

His barrister James Howerd said that if taking photographs of public officials or celebrities was harassment “then we would all have convictions.”

He added: “Every single day all of us are filmed by CCTV and freelance photographers would have a string of convictions for harassment if the taking photographs of somebody amounts to harassment.”

Mr Rose - of Northbourne Road, Great Mongeham, near Deal - said that he pointed out another vehicle parked in a one-hour only zone for 24 hours had escaped a ticket.

"I said it was in an area where I had previously received a ticket and I said are you going to do anything about it? To which she replied: 'There is nothing I can do' and something to do with the lines and with that she walked away.

"Now I was shocked by this because I have had a traffic warden give me a ticket in that area for parking over the hour, so my immediate reaction was to go an take a photograph of the vehicle to prove my point.

"And because the traffic warden had left the area. It wasn't done to harass her, but to point out that she had left the area without doing her job."

He said he later spoke to a police officer to tell him his intention in filming her was "to point out the injustice".