Williamson, in Tamworth for the annual Country Music Festival, raised the ire of police on Saturday morning for remaining in the back of his ute unrestrained after the cavalcade along Peel St.

Alongside him was a friend, who was also unrestrained.

The driver of the ute, believed to be Williamson’s partner Meg Doyle, copped a $250 fine and received three demerit points.

“There was three of us, we could not all fit in the ute,” Williamson said.

“I appreciate that it is illegal but it just did not occur to us, half a kilometre from the end of the parade, that we should have walked.”

Williamson believed police knew who he was, and said they should have been friendlier.

“It’s pretty easy to recognise me,” he said.

“He (the policeman) actually asked me ‘is that really your number plate – DINKUM?’ and I said ‘strangely enough it is’.”

“I don’t think it’s good for Tamworth or the police,” he added.

“I am not whinging, I just think the police have got to think about the PR of the whole thing.”

Williamson suggested the police could have warned him and his companions they couldn’t ride in the back of the ute after the parade.

Rather than a fine and the driver losing three points, Williamson said a warning would have been sufficient.

“We were hardly going to fall out of the ute,” he said.

Police issued a statement on Saturday afternoon confirming a 55-year-old woman from Sydney was fined $253 and lost three points off her licence for having unrestrained passengers in a prohibited part of a ute after the cavalcade.

Two men were allegedly travelling, seated and unrestrained, in the rear of the ute, the statement said.

“Neither man was arrested or fined as a result of the alleged incident,” Superintendent Clint Pheeney said.

“Travelling on a vehicle in the manner which is being alleged, even for a short distance, is unlawful and dangerous.”

“One or both of the men could have easily fallen from the vehicle and onto the roadway, suffering a serious or life-threatening injury.”