A DRIVER will today mount a legal challenge to a parking ticket he received in Worcester - and if he's successful, it could make the fines illegal throughout the country.

Campaigner Robin de Crittenden is using a 17th Century law which states that no one may be fined before being convicted of an offence in a court of law.

And it's being taken so seriously that the National Parking Adjudication Service has arranged a hearing in the city's Fownes Hotel today.

Mr de Crittenden, of Willenhall, near Wolverhampton, said said: "It would have been easier to pay the fine. But the purpose of the challenge is to put the politicians back in their kennels by requiring them to obey the law that regulates Parliament itself."

He hopes to show that the Government and all local councils operating decriminalised parking enforcement regimes are acting unlawfully.

If he succeeds, they would miss out on nearly £1m a year in revenue.

"It sounds a tall order, but revolutions have started with less," said Mr de Crittenden.

"I hope people who are sick of this motoring rip-off will come and support me."

Mr de Crittenden's argument hinges on the judgement in the Metric Martyrs case of 2002, when Lord Justice Laws said the 'constitutional' European Communities Act of 1972, requiring metric measures, superseded the later 'ordinary' Weights and Measures Act of 1985, allowing pounds and ounces.

If that is so, argues Mr de Crittenden, the 'constitutional' Bill of Rights, outlawing fines before conviction, must override the later but 'ordinary' Road Traffic Act 1991.

Neil Herron, Metric Martyrs and People's No Campaign director, plans to attend today's hearing.

He said: "This is the first head-on conflict exposing the highly suspect Metric Martyrs judgement. If the judgement is correct, then decriminalised parking fines cannot be levied.

"Alternatively, the Metric Martyrs were wrongly convicted and are innocent."