Ex-soldier battles on over ticket (From Free Press Series)

Ex-soldier battles on over ticket

AN old soldier from Crickhowell, who served in the South Wales Borderers for 17 years, has one last battle left to fight.

And helping him is his younger brother, also an ex-soldier, who has taken the lead role in tackling Gwent Police - over a parking ticket.

John Davies, 70, has taken up the cudgels on behalf of his disabled brother Dick, who lives on his own in a flat in Crickhowell.

It was while Dick, who served in Hong Kong, Singapore and with the British Army on the Rhine from 1952-69, was visiting John at his home in Dukestown, Tredegar, that he fell foul of the law.

Dick, 71, parked outside his brother's front gate - but forgot to display his disabled badge on the windscreen of his car.

When he returned he found he had been served with a £30 fixed penalty notice.

This has so angered former Lane-Corporal John, also of the SWB, that he has fired off a letter of protest to the Central Ticket Office in Newport.

John said: "Dick is a diabetic, has a hiatus hernia and has recently been a patient at the Heath hospital in Cardiff following a heart attack.

"My brother was visiting me to collect his shopping. Unfortunately, he had left his disabled sticker in the glove compartment of his car. Following a simply telephone call from me, all guns are now realigned on the Central Ticket Office.

Dick, who reached the rank of sergeant, was a weapons instructor, specialising in hand grenades, Bren guns, mortars and flame throwers.