Revealed: Fuel duty protest organiser is mechanic named Pickle with ‘no f—s given’ tattoo on his face

A mechanic called Pickle who has “no f—s given” tattooed on his forehead was among the organisers of Monday’s fuel duty protest.

Pickle Doherty said that the cost of diesel is “ripping me apart” as he travels to customers and so he decided to take part in organising the action which closed the M4 Prince of Wales Severn Bridge.

The 36-year-old told his followers that he works self-employed remapping cars, a process to override the manufacturer’s settings and improve performance, and travels up to 80 miles a day.

He would lose out to competitors if he charged more.

“Sooner or later my radius will be smaller, leaving less chance of work… That’s why I felt the need to do this. Yes p— a lot of you off and disrupting your day. But I too have a family and my partner is currently on maternity leave. Money gets tight but we all need to live,” he wrote.

He said that people should join him if they were in the same boat but not “sit about moaning” and then do nothing about it.

Mr Doherty, whose business is registered in Basingstoke, has posted about his “traveller lifestyle” on his social media accounts and has shared that he lives in a caravan with his wife and young baby.

Protest organised locally

Ashley Fowler, a 24-year-old delivery driver from Cardiff who was listed as Mr Doherty’s fellow organiser on social media, has said that he is so badly impacted by the cost of living crisis that he is going back to live with his mum.

Most of Monday’s action was co-ordinated through the Facebook group Stand up to Fuel Prices, though those behind it said that they are not personally responsible for organising any action.

A number of other groups, including UK Fuel Action and Fuel Price Protest Group UK were also used to try and co-ordinate convoys.

The protests were all organised locally, mainly by small business owners who are struggling to survive.

Andy Carloman, who runs a building company Total Property Care in Telford, organised a 90-minute convoy which travelled slowly from Shifnal Services to junction 1 of the M54 and back.

Mr Carloman, 53, said that he had decided to act because “we just can’t take any more of this tax” with fuel increases compounding the rising cost of materials. Some of his customers are now cancelling because of the cost of living crisis.

Tariq Akram, who works for Merc Transport in Scunthorpe, decided to take the lead after noticing that July 4 had been put out as a date, but no one was organising the details of the action locally.

He said his company had added £4,000 to its fuel bill in the past four months because of price rises and that his company made up 35 of the 50 vehicles making the 60 mile journey from Scunthorpe to Doncaster.