Auchterarder drunks embarrassed after mistakenly abusing disabled man

Feb 2 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A PAIR of “lager louts” who accosted a motorist for using disabled parking in Auchterarder got off on the wrong foot.

The dim-witted, middle-aged duo were standing smoking cigarettes outside the Lang Toon’s Niblick pub when they saw a well-heeled man park a prestige BMW 7 Series vehicle next to the public toilets.

As driver Romolo Camillo got out of the car, the vocal pair shouted at him, protesting what they clearly believed was flagrant abuse of a disabled parking spot by an apparently able-bodied person.

But Mr Camillo, who is a chauffeur and was en route to collect a client at Gleneagles, is an amputee with a hi-tech prosthetic leg fitted just below his left knee that enables full mobility.

“I’d been drinking a bit of water on the way through from Glasgow and desperately needed to go to the loo,” Mr Camillo told the PA yesterday.

“So I parked in the disabled spot and had just got out when these two lager louts outside the pub started shouting at me, ‘that’s ridiculous taking up a disabled spot’, that kind of thing.”

Mr Camillo said being immaculately dressed and driving a flash car – which had a disabled driver badge displayed – probably further fuelled provocation during the High Street incident, which took place last Thursday lunchtime.

“I was starting to fizz, getting angry, so I shouted back that I was disabled, and then they yelled, ‘come over here and prove it’. So I walked calmly across the road, said, well, watch this then, and pulled up my left trouser leg.

“They were both shocked, the more lippy of the two said ‘sorry’ and retreated into the bar and the other one was pretty much lost for words.

“I work hard every day, seven days a week, so it’s a wee bit annoying when guys like these, who are probably in the pub drinking pints all day, think that they can have a go.”

Despite the amputation of his left leg in 1977 after a nasty car crash on the A77 where his vehicle hit an embankment, rolled over and crushed his foot, Mr Camillo (50) loves life and lives it to the full.

“I really enjoy life and my job and I cope very well,” the Newton Mearns resident declared.

“Modern prosthetic limbs are so advanced now that at worst people think I’ve got a slight limp.

“I’m quite lucky actually because driving an automatic, you don’t need your left foot. My philosophy is always that there are other people who are much worse off than me.”