A motorist is refusing to pay a parking ticket he received while parked on poorly-painted and apparently fake double yellow lines.

A ticket is usually no laughing matter but builder Sam Hickmott saw the funny side.

He parked his Land Rover Discovery outside his office in Conway Street, near Hove bus depot, as he has done for the past ten years.

Mr Hickmott, who runs Cambridge Property Maintenance, said one of his workers then told him a traffic warden was slapping a ticket on his vehicle.

He said: "I couldn't believe it. She was there issuing me with a ticket for parking on double-yellow lines. I said, 'You must be joking'.

"She pointed to the ground but I said, 'Surely you can see they aren't proper lines'."

The amateurish double-yellow lines had been painted over rubbish, a plastic coffee cup and cigarette butts. They were not even straight.

Mr Hickmott, of Goldstone Villas, Hove, took photographs and is set to send them to Brighton and Hove City Council. He also called the council's highways office.

He said: "They told me they would never paint lines like that."

He has refused to pay the £30 ticket. He added: "I think someone's playing a prank."

No one from the city council was available to comment.