Tarrant gets call from bailiffs

Chris Tarrant might have wanted to phone a friend when bailiffs arrived and demanded he hand over goods or pay £500 in unpaid parking fines.

The normally unflappable host of Who Wants To Be AMillionaire? was bemused until the bailiff said the fines had been run up by his wife, Ingrid.

After a brief stand-off on the doorstep of their £2million home, Mrs Tarrant paid a cheque for £500 and returned inside to explain to her husband what had happened.

'Chris answered the knock at the door and he said to me, "There's a man here, he's the bailiff",' Mrs Tarrant said.

The 51-year-old mother-of-four admitted she had received three parking tickets in her Saab during a trip to London late last year - one in Wandsworth and two in Kensington and Chelsea.

She thought the debts had been paid off but forgot to check to see if the payment was made.

She eventually accepted the bailiff's claim that the money had not been banked. Yesterday she admitted: 'I'm not proud of the fact that I've got three tickets. I have got previous. Chris says I never park a car, I abandon it!'

The early call came at 7.45am on Monday. Coincidentally, the bailiff was a former mini-cab driver who, in his old job, drove the Tarrants from their luxury home in Esher, Surrey, to a party in London.

'It's a small world,' said Mrs Tarrant. 'I'll have to be more careful where I park in the future.'