A retired property manager is fighting Barnet Council, in North London, over a parking ticket he was given for putting a for-sale note on his car.

Victor Abrahams, 67, was shocked when he returned to his parked Ford Escort Cabriolet on Bibsworth Road, Finchley, North London, to find a penalty notice. “There was a £100 fine on the window screen. When I called the council, they said I was ‘offering goods for sale in a parking place’, which is illegal. I had no idea that I couldn’t advertise my own car for sale. Loads of people do it.

“I don’t live in the area, but I’ve had my office here for the last 25 years and I’ve never heard of anything like it,” added Mr Abrahams, who lives in Kenton and is a member of Kenton United shul.

“As far as I was concerned I was parked legally but I was penalised for advertising my car for sale. It is my own possession. It’s not like I was selling goods out of the boot of my car. They are trying to pin me for ‘displaying goods for sale on a public highway’ and I’m going to fight it. They told me that this new rule had come in about a year ago and it had been advertised in the local paper but I don’t live locally so I hadn’t seen the notice.”

Mr Abrahams is retired but still works a few hours each day in Finchley. A month ago he put a printed A4 sign in the car reading: “Ford Escort Ghia Cabriolet, fully loaded, very low mileage, one owner”, with his mobile number at the bottom. The asking price was not on the notice.

Barnet Council said the rule was introduced to keep parking space free for residents. A spokesman said: “New parking-contravention codes were introduced on April 4, 2007 with the description of ‘using a vehicle in a parking place in connection with the sale or offering for sale or exposing for sale the goods when prohibited’.”

Mr Abrahams has written to the council appealing against the fine.