The owner of a fancy French restaurant in Kingston, N.Y., paid an $80 parking ticket with 8,000 pennies.

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The packing ticket was one of many run up by Jean Jacques Carquillat, owner of Le Canard Enchaine, his wife, Jennifer Madden, or his company, Sarita Inc., the Kingston Daily Freeman reported Saturday. He had already paid $1,645 recently by more conventional means.

On Tuesday, Carquillat turned over 160 rolls of pennies to the Parking Violations Bureau to pay for tickets on his wife's Porsche. The bureau accepts coins as long as they are rolled.

Joan Brandt, head of the bureau, said city employees who dine at Carquillat's establishment might consider paying in pennies.

"How would he like that?" she asked.

The same day that Carquillat made his protest gesture the Porsche got two more tickets.