A defiant London meter man nearly sparked an international incident Saturday when he issued a parking ticket to Hillary Clinton while she was at a UK event being honored for diplomacy.

The traffic cop even ignored the five angry, beefy security guards who jumped in to guard the former Secretary of State’s silver Mercedes as he wrote out the citation, according to a lensman who captured the confrontation on camera.

Clinton was inside London’s Chatham House to receive a prize for her ‘‘significant and impressive contribution to international diplomacy’’ when a Westminster City Council warden put a “penalty notice” on the car that she’d arrived in, photographer Greg Brennan told the Daily Mail online.

At the time, Hillary’s security detail was sitting in a van next to her parked car because it was raining – but they quickly got out to protest.

Brennan said one of Clinton’s agents flashed his badge and angrily waved his arms, but the unflustered meter man just kept writing out the citation and put it on the car.

Clinton’s camp could not immediately be reached for comment.

US diplomats top the list of UK ticket scofflaws, racking up nearly $12 million in fines in the past 10 years, according to the Mail Online.