A mtorist who described his visit to a garage as 'like living in a sketch out of Fawlty Towers' has won a cash settlement after taking the matter to the small claims court.

Angelo Sapiano, of Lichfield in Biggleswade, was stunned to find his car had been in an accident while on the forecourt of Eden Bridge Toyota in Letchworth, suffering scratches to the bodywork and a cracked bumper.

And to add insult to injury he was also sent a speeding ticket by police, after his Toyota MR2 was spotted near Clifton being driven by a mechanic more than 20 miles over the speed limit.

But Eden Bridge boss Stuart Cole says the garage – which has changed hands since the saga began nearly four years ago – made repeated attempts to resolve the matter – all of which were rejected.

The dispute started in December 2005 when Mr Sapiano took his car in to be fixed.

But over the Christmas holiday he started to notice further problems, and by February 2006 he was back at Eden Bridge.

He explained: "I was at work one day and they phoned me up to say 'we're sorry, but someone's run into your car while it was on the
forecourt'. Well, accidents do happen.

"But then shortly after that I got a police notice through the letterbox regarding a speeding offence.

"I was fuming. When I went to collect the car it was still damaged, the front that had been resprayed had a score mark across it, and the bumper was cracked. I asked them to replace the bumper but they refused."

But despite repeated letters back and forth between himself, Toyota and the garage, the matter was not resolved to his satisfaction until last week – when he took his claim to the small claims court and won.

Mr Cole said: "Many gestures of goodwill were put towards him but Mr Sapiano wanted to go to the nth degree.

"We were not the owners of the garage when those incidents occurred, the business changed management in 2007.

"We and the previous owners tried to settle this issue with Mr Sapiano, but he was unreasonable."

And he said that the mechanic caught speeding no longer works for the garage.