A motorist who failed to pay a £35 parking ticket woke yesterday to find his car had been clamped by bailiffs.

Daniel Dean, 33, of Eskdale Rise, Allerton, Bradford, was given nine hours to find £400 or risk having his Honda towed away at a further cost of £195 and then charged £35 a day to have it impounded in a police-approved recovery yard.

Mr Dean, a part-time worker at Asda, Shipley, and father to 13-month-old Jessica and eight-year-old Adam, said he was forced to ask family members to help him raise the cash to prevent costs escalating.

But Bradford Council, which had originally issued the ticket when Mr Dean had parked illegally in Duckworth Lane, near Bradford Royal Infirmary, said it had only taken the action after repeated attempts to get payment had failed. Paul Ratcliffe, the Council’s parking services manager, said: “We have written to Mr Dean three times at his address about this outstanding payment before passing the matter on to bailiffs.

“They are also required to contact the registered keeper of any vehicle to warn them before their vehicle is clamped.”

Mr Dean’s car was clamped at 7am by a bailiff employed by Jacobs in Liverpool, which had been contracted by the Council to recover unpaid debts.

The firm said it had put a sticker on the windscreen to warn Mr Dean of the clamp.

Mr Dean said he had been unaware of the action being taken against him.

“A neighbour warned me,” he said. “I thought it was a joke at first but when I phoned a number spray painted on the clamp they said yes, they had clamped me.”

He also said he could not remember getting a parking ticket on June 28.

“My son is asthmatic and I do recall going to Bradford Royal Infirmary and there being nowhere to park in the hospital and going outside to park in Duckworth Lane but I do not recall a ticket.”

When he failed to pay the fine, the matter was eventually taken to court by the Council on November 11, who authorised bailiffs to recover the debt.

Mr Dean said: “I am gutted. I can’t believe it can go from £35 to £400.”