A man has defaced the wrong solicitor's car after receiving advice he didn't like from another solicitor who didn't own the car that he defaced.

Nigel Biddulph visited Steele & Son, a small firm in Clitheroe, Lancashire, after he was evicted from his home. But the solicitor he saw couldn't help, and so Biddulph left. He returned with a tin of brown paint and daubed the boot of a car parked outside the firm's offices, before escaping unseen. Police identified Biddulph by showing CCTV footage from the shop where he'd bought the paint to staff at Steele & Son, who recognised him.

How it might have looked*

The solicitor whose car Biddulph painted wasn't even the lawyer who had tried to help him. A rueful Ian Dearing told RollOnFriday, "I was an innocent bystander", and that Budulph appeared to have just picked the nearest car to the front door. Dearing went on to explain that another man's nemesis had daubed his silver-grey, "top quality Honda Legend" with Hammerite paint so, "I couldn't even use solvent. I had to scrape it off with a ruler". The Legend is awaiting a full respray, and currently has a "well-scraped look".

Blackburn magistrates heard that the day before decorating Dearing's car, Biddulph had kicked in a gaming machine at a bookies, and the day after he lobbed a brick at a police car. He pleaded guilty to causing £2000 of damage to the car and was made subject to a community order for nine months, a drug rehabilitation requirement for six months, and ordered to pay Dearing £240 compensation.

*With apologies to Alan