A D-Day veteran and have-a-go hero wept tears of relief as he was cleared by a Court of damaging a neighbour's car.

Ron Appleby, 79, had been woken by police in the middle of the night, arrested and put in a police cell for hours after his neighbour accused him of scratching his Jaguar car.

But yesterday Bradford magistrates found the pensioner not guilty of criminal damage. Mr Appleby, who as a 19-year-old Royal Naval rating lived through the D-Day landings and survived being blown up during an attack on a German submarine four weeks later, said his arrest and court ordeal had caused him great distress.

"I lived through all of that and now I've got through this.

''It took some doing this time round," he said.

"It hurt my pride to be wrongly accused although everyone who knows me knew I was innocent.

"I've never been in trouble with the police - the opposite in fact. They gave me an award for helping them when I was 68.

So to be got out of my bed and arrested in the middle of the night by the police was deeply distressing for me and my wife Amy.

"I cried my eyes out in that police cell, they left me there for hours until they were ready to talk to me. I shouldn't have been treated like that."

Mr Appleby, of Thackley, Bradford, had previously been awarded a police commendation for tackling a gang of teenagers who knocked a boy off his mountain bike and tried to steal it.

He and another man working at Esholt Sewage Works managed to keep the gang at the scene until police arrived.

Mr Appleby said: "I've lived on Overdale Drive with my family for 42 years and never had any run-ins with any neighbours until this upset happened in September.

"I'm just looking forward to walking down my street with my head held high, free from stress and worry."

Bradford Magistrates' Court was told that Mr Appleby's neighbour, Jan Bostock, had parked his Jaguar courtesy car partly on the pavement outside his home in Overdale Drive, one evening last September.

Mr Bostock told the court that, about two-and-a-half hours later, he heard a sound and saw Mr Appleby near the car with a key in his hand. There was an 18-inch long scratch mark on the side of the vehicle.

Mr Bostock said he called the police and went to Mr Appleby's home and challenged him about the incident. "I was livid," he said.

Mr Appleby told the court he had been to the supermarket that night and, after returning by bus, began walking home along Overdale Drive.

"There was a car there, up on the pavement," he said. "I just walked straight down."

He denied damaging the car in any way and said he never carries keys. This was confirmed by evidence from his daughter, Christine Buck.

In Mr Applelby's defence, his solicitor John Kelly, said the court could have "nothing but sympathy" for Mr Bostock.

"We all suffer the unpleasantness of having our car scratched and Mr Bostock believes Mr Appleby was responsible," he said.

"But that car was parked on the pavement for about two-and-a-half hours and more than one person would have walked on that pavement in two-and-a-half hours.

"It might well be that people were irritated by the parking of the vehicle and were moved to damage it."

Mr Kelly described his client as a war hero who took part in the D-Day landings and was of good character.

After the hearing Mr Bostock said: "It was my word against his. The magistrates made their decision and that's the end of it. I'm surprised the police took it to court. I reported what I saw and they asked me to be a witness. I've no other issues with Mr Appleby."

Mr Appleby's daughter Christine Buck, who was with her dad at the court hearing said: "It's be a nightmare for all of us. We're a close family and we have all felt the pain. The police should never have taken it to court, it's been a waste of public money."

A West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "We are concerned, particularly in the light of his age, if his treatment was upsetting and would welcome him contacting us with any issues he may have.

"Where we receive a report of any crime we are bound to investigate and pass details to the Crown Prosecution Service and subject to their decision cases are brought before the court on the basis of the evidence."

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: "All cases passed to us by the police are carefully reviewed in accordance with the published Code for Crown Prosecutors. The Code outlines two stages in the decision to prosecute.

"The first stage is consideration of the evidence. The Code states that a prosecution can only go ahead if there is enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. If it does not meet this standard then the case must not go ahead. The second stage is the public interest test."