A father who was given a parking ticket after his disabled badge fell off his dashboard says he feels Barnet Borough Council is treating him like an “idiot”.

Peter Heath was visiting his ex-wife, Penelope, at her home in Diploma Avenue, East Finchley, last month and parked his silver Volkswagen Golf in a bay nearby before leaving his blue badge on show.

The 60-year-old has a problem with his legs which means he walks with a limp and is constantly in severe pain.

When he returned to his car he noticed a yellow ticket had been taped to his windscreen and realised his badge had fallen onto the floor.

Despite explaining the situation to Barnet Borough Council, officials refused to waive the charge.

Mr Heath said: “The badge had clearly fallen down and it was clearly an accident. They know about the existence of it so why they wouldn’t waive the charge is beyond me.

“I feel like they’re trying to be clever but it doesn’t conform with the spirit of these disabled badges. It doesn’t conform with the spirit of these things - the money we get in disabled benefits goes straight back to the government on parking tickets.

“It’s ridiculous. I am very fed up. It’s like they’re trying to treat me like an idiot.”

Mr Heath, who lives in Islington, was visiting his ex-wife, who is also disabled, to bring her groceries as she is unable to lift heavy items herself.

He has now appealed against the ticket but it could take 30 days for the authority to come to a decision.

Derek Dishman, a parking expert who blogs under the alias Mr Mustard and writes a blog for the Times Series: "The argument is it doesn't matter how many badges you've got, it has to be displayed.

"Normally for a first offence the council will let you off, but I personally think it's stupid that if somebody shows that were it not for a minor error, then once you've shown you had the right to park there they should use their discretion to cancel the ticket."

In a statement, Barnet Council said: “This case is currently the subject of an appeal and as such it would not be appropriate to comment at this stage.”