Archived press release

Date Published: 17/11/06

Aylesbury Vale District Council has condemned the behaviour of a motorist who was jailed today (17 November) for assaulting a parking attendant in Aylesbury High Street. Toni Sambuda, 19, formerly of St Edmund’s Close, Aylesbury, was senten...

Aylesbury Vale District Council has condemned the behaviour of a motorist who was jailed today (17 November) for assaulting a parking attendant in Aylesbury High Street.

Toni Sambuda, 19, formerly of St Edmund’s Close, Aylesbury, was sentenced to 19 weeks in a detention centre by Aylesbury Magistrates Court this afternoon.

The incident took place last May, when Sambuda confronted AVDC parking attendant Vivienne McKay after being issued with a £60 Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for an invalid parking ticket.

Although Mrs McKay was not the parking attendant who had issued the PCN, she looked at it and tried to explain to Sambuda why it had been issued. Sambuda was shouting obscenities at this point so Mrs McKay leaned into the motorist’s car and placed the PCN back on the dashboard.

As Mrs McKay was doing this, Sambuda punched her under her arm. Sambuda then spat straight in the face of Mrs McKay as she was writing down the car’s registration number.

Sambuda was found guilty of common assault and resisting arrest by Aylesbury Magistrates Court on 5 September.

Councillor Val Baxter, Cabinet Member for Asset Management, condemned the attack as ‘disgraceful’ and said the council would not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour towards its workers. “Parking attendants carry out a difficult job in sometimes difficult circumstances. To vilify them and attempt to assault them is totally unacceptable and we fully support the court’s action in this case,” she said.

“We will press for firm action to be taken by the police and courts against anyone who abuses, threatens or attacks a member of our staff. We work hard to make Aylesbury Vale a safe place to live and work and will not tolerate violence of any kind,” she added.