Boris Johnson racked up £4,000 in parking tickets while working as a motoring correspondent, his former boss has said.
Dylan Jones, who edited GQ magazine for more than two decades until 2021, hired Mr Johnson to work at the Conde Nast title in May 1999 over lunch at Le Caprice.
"There soon appeared to be something of a problem, however, as the managing editor started to get sent rather a lot of parking tickets," Mr Jones wrote in The Sunday Times.
"And when I say a lot, I mean a lot; in Boris's own words, they started accumulating 'like drifting snow on the windshield'.
Mr Jones added: "I once worked out that, over the decade he worked for GQ, Boris had cost us about £4,000 in parking tickets.
"But then he'd also written more than a hundred incredibly funny motoring columns, so I figured it was worth it."
Mr Jones, who was appointed an OBE in 2013 for services to the publishing and fashion industries, said "interestingly" Mr Johnson never received any speeding tickets.
"And I've got a pretty good idea why," Mr Jones added.
"When the cars were delivered to his house in Islington, the car company always made a note of the mileage, something that is standard practice.
"The mileage would also be noted when they came to pick them up again. And on more than one occasion - OK, on many, many, many occasions - the mileage was precisely the same.
"So I leave you to draw your own conclusions."
Downing Street declined to comment.
The Prime Minister is battling for his political life amid the fallout from the Partygate scandal, which saw him receive a £50 fine for attending a surprise lockdown birthday gathering in June 2020.
Cabinet Minister Brandon Lewis tried to minimise the severity of the penalty by comparing it to a parking fine before U-turning in a disastrous interview last week.
Mr Johnson travelled more than 4,000 miles to India to escape his woes but his efforts to focus on trade and diplomacy were derailed by the ongoing row.
He told journalists in India that he would still be Prime Minister in the autumn - despite growing Tory discontent.
Police have reportedly begun handing out fines to attendees of a BYOB gathering in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 - which the PM has admitted to attending briefly.
But No10 has said Mr Johnson has not received a fixed penalty notice over the event so far.
