An Edinburgh man has been slapped with a £30 fine after a bout of emergency diarrhea caused him to abandon his electric car at a charging point.

Walter Grieve, 66, left his car all day to charge at the Drumbrae Library Hub, but didn’t make it back within the 12-hour limit because a stomach bug left him confined to the toilet where he was sh*tting uncontrollably.

Walter e-mailed the council to explain the situation and appeal his £30 fine – but only received one response over a three-month period despite escalating the query to a complaint.

Walter explained the situation to Edinburgh Live:

‘I usually charge it for about six or seven hours. You register with the council and get a card to use their electric car charging points then you receive an invoice later.

I had left my car on charge at ten in the morning and went home to have some lunch-I had been feeling unwell but managed to eat some food then became much more unwell later on.

I had an upset stomach and was an hour late collecting it, when I arrived at around 11.30pm I knew it had gone over the 12 hours limit. So I emailed the council early the next day to explain as I knew I would get a fine. I received the £30 overstay fine on March 6, and 11 weeks later I have still had no official response.

I chased up my appeal three times in the following weeks having had no response. I then made a formal complaint to Edinburgh Council by telephone. I had to chase that up a couple of times over the following weeks. This resulted in one email stating they would get back to me by the end of that week but never did.

I then raised this lack of response from the council with my local councillor who is “looking into it”, but I have still had no proper response and it is now about 11 weeks since I first appealed!’

He continued:

‘It’s the whole process of emailing and not getting a response, chasing it up and not getting a response, to then complaining and still not getting a response.

Finally they got in touch today and asked for evidence to back up my extenuating circumstances but I had a stomach bug and diarrhoea – you wouldn’t go to the GP for that even if you could get an appointment.

It’s coming up for three months now since I got the ticket and it still has not been dealt with, which is frustrating.’

Absolute nightmare. Although I’d rather pay a £30 fine than have to fork out to clean the car seat, which would have absolutely been the case had Walter rushed back to his car. Still, I’m not sure why they’re being so tough on him. What kind of evidence are they looking for? Actual samples of his diarrhea? Hopefully the fact he went to the press with this humiliating story is good enough to convince them that he’s being sincere. Come on, Edinburgh Council. Hasn’t the man suffered enough?

For the homeless man who threw a huge bucket of hot diarrhea all over a woman’s face, click HERE. That’s LA for you.