A man who set up a fake green traffic light outside his home has been whacked with a £332 fine for causing public nuisance.
Wayne Earl, 62, was fed up after having to spend thousands repairing damage to his Grade II listed home in Wiltshire caused by vehicles reversing at the crossroads outside.
So he came up with the idea of setting up a light on his porch, but the addition of the light 'posed a considerable danger' and caused locals 'a huge amount of frustration', a court heard.
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Sergeant Kevin Harmsworth, of Wiltshire Police, told the court: "The installation of these green lights, directly in line with a traffic light junction, caused a huge amount of frustration and concern amongst the local community and the local policing team, due to the potential danger they posed.
"We are in no doubt that these green lights posed a considerable danger to road users, as they appear to have been deliberately placed to confuse motorists about the traffic light sequence on a junction which had previously seen serious injury and fatal road traffic collisions.
"We made repeated attempts to liaise with Mr Earl, including serving both a Community Protection Warning and a Community Protection Notice, ordering him to either turn off or take down the green lights.
"Unfortunately, he failed to adhere with these orders and we had no choice but to pursue prosecution."
Earl appeared in Salisbury magistrates courts where he admitted charge of causing a public nuisance and was fined £150.
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He was also ordered to pay £150 in costs and a £32 surcharge for a total of £332.
Prosecuting, Ryan Senevirante, told the court: "A police officer saw lights signalling from the area outside his house that looked as though they could be mistaken for traffic lights.
"The green lights were similar in size and shape to traffic lights and in a position that they would be likely to cause confusion to road users and potentially cause road traffic accidents."
Earl's defence lawyer Trevor Line said his client set up the light after his property's porch was damaged on several occasions.
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He said: "He was fearful that the next time it might be his house so he put up a light so vehicles could see the porch."
Speaking after the court case, Earl - who fitted the light in 2015 - said: "One lorry was turning up the lane opposite and could not make the turn so reversed and demolished the wall and the porch.
"The damage cost me thousands to repair.
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"It was after that I decided to put the light up so the porch could be seen by people driving past."
He also claimed to have originally put up a white light but changed it to green after he was told white light was bad for the local bats.
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