Gallery: click below to view El Hadji Diouf's gold Cadillac Escalade

According to the Manchester Evening News, the gold Cadillac Escalade Diouf arrived in was parked in a loading bay while he popped out for a spot of lunch in Manchester city centre.

A council spokesman told the MEN: "In the circumstances described to us, this vehicle should have received a Penalty Charge Notice for parking in this loading bay.

"In mitigation the officer's hand-held computer wasn't working and she was on the way back to base to obtain a replacement.

"Had the vehicle still been parked when she returned to this location at 2.50pm then a Penalty Charge Notice would have been issued."

Gallery: click below to see what the WAGs drive

It’s not the first time Diouf has been pictured parking where he shouldn’t. We’ve seem shots of him in various taxi bays, loading bays and on double yellow lines – but £70 isn’t much to the talented-but-controversial African.

The midfielder, who has played for Liverpool, Bolton, Sunderland and Blackburn, has a long history of madcap motors.

His garage has included a chrome Mercedes McLaren SLR, a massively modified white Cadillac Escalade and a Revere Range Rover.

But this gold Cadillac Escalade is surely his tackiest motor yet and should take the emphasis off Stephen Ireland for the time.

It’s been hard, but we’ve avoided getting the words ‘golden’, ‘ticket’ and ‘Willy Wonka’ into this article somehow…

Gallery: click below to see Stephen Ireland's girlfriend get ticketed - in a monster modified Bentley

Gallery: click below to view images of El Hadji Diouf's chrome Mercedes SLR and other crazy paintjobs

Who has the worst taste in cars - Manchester City's Stephen Ireland or El Hadji Diouf? Have your say on the Auto Trader Blog now