A judge said an "enormous amount of tax-payers money" had been wasted on prosecuting a man involved in a row over a £650 car repair bill.

Calum Gaskell, 23, was charged with making off without payment after driving his Corsa away from PJ Cars Autogas in Kings Langley.

Today Gaskell, of Chester Road, Watford, admitted the charge and said he would pay the bill.

Prosecutor Simon Stirling said: "The defendant had his car repaired at the garage. There was some dispute over the £650 bill for an engine but it was agreed when the work was complete.

"The defendant went to the garage and got into the vehicle but the garage's owner removed the key. The defendant then used his own key to drive away."

Defence barrister Daniel O'Malley said: "He is willing to pay the full amount of £650."

Judge Stephen Gullick gave Gaskell, a library clerk in the medical records department at Watford General Hospital, 28 days to settle the bill and ordered him to pay £100 prosecution costs. He also passed a 12 month conditional discharge.

The judge said: "This was a civil dispute and should have been dealt with as such. It was not appropriate to use crown court time to resolve a dispute between individuals. The cost to the tax-payers will have been thousands of pounds.

"These proceeding were misconceived and not in the public interest. It is not a matter in which the police should ever have got involved, spending an enormous amount of tax payers money."