An 82-year-old retired judge had a brush with the other side of the law last Monday when two "thug" bailiffs visited his Cobham home saying they were going to take his car for non-payment of parking fines.

Anthony Lewisohn, of D'Abernon Road, was intimidated by the two men into giving them £512.07 on his credit card even though he had no idea what he had done wrong.

The two men, who Mr Lewisohn described as "extremely menacing" had no proof of the fines or who had issued them.

No letters had been sent to Mr Lewisohn's address warning him they were coming and the men, one 6ft 5 in and the other smaller wearing a lot of rings and armed with a wheel clamp, had arrived completely unannounced.

"You never saw two more scary people," said his wife Lone. "If I had been on my own I don't know what I would have done."

"They were shouting and being aggressive. My husband is 82 and could have had a heart attack. The bailiffs shouldn't send people like that," she added.

"When I told the thugs I was a judge they took the news joyously," said Mr Lewisohn, who sat at the Old Bailey and then Guildford Crown Court until 1998 as a hanging judge. "It just egged them on. They didn't threaten physical violence but were very menacing."

"I ended up giving them my credit card details as I wanted the whole experience to end."

Following his treatment Mr Lewisohn is calling for more transparency in the way bayliffs work.

On contacting the police about the incident, he was told they receive dozens of similar complaints and can do nothing unless violence or the threat of violence is used.

The £60 parking fine had been issued by Elmbridge Borough Council last summer. They sent three letters to Mr Lewisohn's old address in Oxshott before calling in the debt collectors. The letters were not forwarded on to the 82-year old.

"The two thugs had visited my old address to find out where we live now so they must have known I had changed address and that's why i had not paid the fine," he said. "But that didn't matter to them - they just wanted their money."

The Northampton-based debt collection agency Newlyn Collections who employed the men were unavailable to comment.