Residents on the Isles of Scilly complained after being given parking tickets on New Years Day - only to discover it was prank by a local reveller.

Police on St Mary's, the largest of the five islands off the coast of Cornwall, were accused of 'draconian' conduct after fixed penalty parking notices were left on cars.

But the tickets were the work of Chris Purkiss (29), a handyman who had dressed as a traffic warden to celebrate the new year, reports the Daily Telegraph.

"I thought it would be quite funny to go out dressed as a traffic warden, and I only put the tickets on cars of people I knew," said Mr Purkiss.

"The police took it in very good humour. They came along, shook my hand and said, 'Could you work for us next Wednesday'?"

The force said in a message posted online: "We have had some comments that as police we were very draconian on New Year's Day issuing warning notices to cars parked in Hugh Town.

"We were a little confused as there was no one on duty on New Year's Day. Using our honed investigation skills, we think we have realised what has happened.

"If you received one of the above tickets from the fancy dress Isles of Scilly Parking Warden, they are not real and nothing to do with us!"

Sgt Colin Taylor told a local newspaper he was amused by the prank but added it was a "potentially harmful rumour that could erode trust in my not-so-heavy-handed approach to policing Scilly".

The Isles of Scilly, which have a population of around 2,100 people and receive over 100,000 tourists a year, have been dubbed the 'land that crime forgot' because of its low rate of offending.