A RESIDENT fed up with police station and council office staff parking outside his home has been arrested after putting No Parking stickers on car windows.

Sales manager Stuart Johnson, 52, of Castle View, Chester-le-Street, was arrested for allegedly causing criminal damage after he was spotted by a worker at the nearby police station putting a notice on the side window of a vehicle.

He said that he was taken to Durham police station, where he was fingerprinted, photographed and asked to give a DNA sample - before being released with a caution.

Police said that there had been previous incidents where stickers had been attached to cars using a strong adhesive, causing damage to the glass.

However, Mr Johnson said that all he used was ordinary stickers.

"Parking in Castle View is an ongoing problem," he said. "It happens to be the police doing it because they don't want to pay. The car park over there is pay and display.

"I put three stickers on the window, where it would not block vision, that said Castle View is not a car park. I didn't damage anything.

"Someone glued a sticker on a car last week - I don't know who - but mine were not heavy adhesive."

A spokesman for Durham Police said officers went to Castle View and arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage after a member of staff at the police station saw him attaching a note to a car window.

He said: "There have been a number of incidents in Castle View where windows have been damaged because stickers have been attached with super-strong adhesive."

He said staff from the police station and the nearby Civic Centre, as well as shoppers, parked in Castle View and, although police staff had been told about the residents' concerns, they could not be prevented from parking there as it was not illegal.

"We have not been heavy handed," he added.