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A painter says he was arrested and locked up for six hours after complaining about stationary police vehicles left with their engines running near his home.

Jock McFadyen said the cars run “all day and all night” and he, his wife and neighbours have been complaining about the problem for three years.

The Royal Academy artist said he finally snapped on Sunday and ended up slapping the bonnet of an empty police car after two officers in a car nearby refused to turn off their own engine while they were parked just yards from his home.

He was arrested for criminal damage and was locked up but eventually released without charge.

Today the 63-year-old said he was at his wit’s end and that he and his wife Susie Honeyman have complained to the borough commander, to Mayor Boris Johnson and to Bethnal Green police station, which is on their road, to no avail.

“We all use our front yards for sitting and eating in the summer and the stench from the fumes is just awful,” he said. “It’s not just the smell, it’s the pollution. Diesel particles are a proven carcinogenic. It’s just soul-destroying. We don’t know what to do next.”

The practice of leaving car engines running is known as runlock. It allows the police vehicles to keep the computer booted up to allow the control centre to know the exact location at any time of the vehicle, and to tell them where to go. When the engine is switched off it takes about seven minutes to boot up the computer.

Ms Honeyman, 53, a rock musician, said: “Almost every time we walk past the police station there is an unattended police vehicle with its engine running. Sometimes there are as many as four police vehicles left unattended with their engines running for periods of an hour and a half, throughout the day, so in effect there is always a police vehicle belting out diesel fumes 24/7 unnecessarily.

“Our neighbours in the flats next door to the police station cannot let their baby out on the balcony because of the harmful effects of diesel fumes and we cannot sit in our front yard because of the fumes. I had cancer last year, of course it’s impossible to blame police car pollution, but it does make one wonder.”

Mr McFadyen yesterday received an apology from his local station for his arrest but police cars on his road are continuing to be kept running unattended.

“I was arrested for criminal damage but the car that I had apparently damaged was driven off later so I can’t understand how it was damaged,” he said. “I knew they wouldn’t charge me.”

Assistant Superintendent Helen Lewis of Tower Hamlets Police said: “I can confirm that we have received one official complaint from a local resident in relation to police cars being left running outside the Bethnal Green Police Station. We take all complaints from the community very seriously. I intend to fully investigate this situation and pending the outcomes of the investigation will work with the community to ensure that the any issues are resolved.”

Last night, after Mr McFayden received an apology from the police for being handcuffed and fingerprinted for venting his anger over the issue, the Standard observed a car left running unattended outside the station.

The vehicle, parked just three doors away from the couple’s home, was stationary for 45 minutes, before it was driven off.