A gallant gardener who refused to remove an ‘offensive’ message from his van has been summoned to court.

Alan Clark, 68, was given ten days to remove the sign, ‘Aviva Insurance, shower of bastards’, from the back of his van in August – but said police only came round three weeks later asking him to get rid of it.

After once again refusing, Mr Clark received a summons to St Albans Magistrates Court for November 4. He has been threatened with a public order offence for words in print likely to cause shock and alarm.

But he said he will not go down without a fight.

READ MORE: Gardener refuses to remove 'distressing' sign

Mr Clark said: “Until they give me a jury and a proper trial, the sign isn’t going anywhere.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Magna Carta says no free man shall be seized without the lawful judgment of his peers, and neither will I be.

“The government and police forked out millions to protect Salman Rushdie and his freedom of speech – it’s very contradictory.”

On August 19, police told Mr Clark he had ten days to remove the sign because people had complained about it.

But the gardener said he thinks that is a lie.

He said: “If I do get a jury trial the first thing I’m going to do is see whether police lie under oath. They claim that they received several complaints about my van, well show me the proof then.

“It’s total nonsense. I still get people giving me the thumbs up and wanting to have photos taken by it. I even set up a website called showerofbastards.com so people can tell me what they think.

“Aviva have wronged me and until I get some of my money back the sign won’t be moved.”

Mr Clark bought insurance from Aviva in November. But in January he received a letter saying his policy was cancelled four weeks earlier.

The company said he had lied about his no claims bonus and unless he paid an extra £900 they would not reinstate his policy.

But Mr Clark said his previous car insurers had not told him it paid money to a claimant and he did not feel he should be punished for this.

Aviva said it cancelled Mr Clark’s policy because he failed to provide proof of his no claims discount.

It said they sent him an email and letter explaining that his policy would be cancelled.

Aviva and Hertfordshire Constabulary were contacted for a comment but have not responded.