To draw a yellow line under one parked car and then mistakenly slap a parking ticket on it may be regarded as unfortunate.

But to do it twice in exactly the same road in the space of 12 months looks like carelessness.

That is exactly what Barnet Council did to Michael Dickson, a teacher who lives a stone’s throw from Hendon Town Hall in Brampton Grove, Hendon.

He was stunned when he returned to his parked car one afternoon in March to discover that not only was he parked on a yellow line where before there had been none, but also that he had been given a ticket, despite having displayed a parking permit.

He accused the council of trying to ‘squeeze out’ all the money it can from residents, but what makes him truly incredulous is that the council fined another motorist one year ago in exactly the same way.

Mr Dickson, 27, said: “It is ridiculous. Everyone I have told this story to has been shocked. It is the same road that it happened in before, and it has gone and happened again, in probably almost the same place. It’s unbelievable.

“It’s all about how much money they can squeeze out of residents, and it is very unfair.” When he parked in the top end of Brampton Grove, near The Burroughs, on March 1, Mr Dickson checked with the workmen resurfacing the road to ensure they had finished the job.

Although no lines had been painted on the road yet, just to be sure, he put a parking permit in the windscreen of his Nissan Micra because he knew he was within the Controlled Parking Zone.

And on the morning of March 2, all was quiet, but when he returned at nearly 2pm, a yellow line had been painted up to his car and he had been given a parking ticket.

Exactly one year ago, the same thing happened to David Gilbert, a business analyst of Florence Street, Hendon, who parked in the same area of Brampton Grove on April 5 when there were no parking restrictions in force.

Later in the day, a yellow line had been painted just up to the wheels of his Honda Civic, and Mr Gilbert, 30, had also been given a ticket, which was later refunded after his story was featured in this newspaper.

Mr Gilbert was amazed this week. “This is brilliant,” he said. “They are so stupid. I find it unbelievable that the local authority can’t get this right after the bad publicity it got last year.

“If they hadn’t got things so wrong, maybe they wouldn’t have had to put up the cost of parking permits this year. They should stop wasting money and residents’ time.” Mr Dickson, who is married and has a 15-month-old daughter, did appeal but received a standard response letter and has since paid his £40 fine.

“It is to my regret that I paid,” he said. “That’s what they want — for you not to have enough time to challenge them.” A council spokeswoman for Barnet Council said: “We have looked into Mr Dickson’s case and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. A refund has been arranged. There was an oversight in the initial appeal.” She also said any parking attendant would have only been in the area by coincidence, and would not have known the lines had just been drawn.