Taking on the Government Council faces £1m refund to drivers after using 'wrong type of camera' in illegal parking clampdown
A fine mess: Council faces £1m refund to drivers after using 'wrong type of camera' in illegal parking clampdown
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:18 PM on 6th May 2011
Smart car cameras had not been officially approved
Motorists could be in line for a £1million refund of parking fines after council bosses used the 'wrong sort of camera'.
The CCTV Smart car cameras had not been declared an 'approved device' by the Department of Transport.
As a result thousands of tickets issued by Richmond Council, in south London, could be ruled invalid.
The surveillance cars have since been taken off the streets and Lord True, leader of Richmond Council, has now indicated that all affected drivers could be due refunds.
He promised a full investigation after it was claimed cameras on the council's two CCTV cars were not correctly certified and fines had been issued illegally since 2009.
Last year alone, the council issued 12,305 tickets, raising more than £573,000.
A council spokesman said: 'We are taking advice and are considering the question [of refunding motorists].'
Campaigner Nigel Wise spotted the administrative error and had a £100 fine issued thanks to evidence from one of the cars overturned at an appeal.
Mr Wise, 59, a carer from Whitton, said: 'Tens of thousands of people who have been subjected to these unlawful penalties will be interested in obtaining refunds. It is an absolute scandal.'
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He contacted Lord True this week, asking him for assurances the council would 'act humanely' and offer full refunds to anyone who had been hit with 'unlawful penalties'.
In an email to Mr Wise, Lord True confirmed he had asked for a 'full investigation'.
Campaign group No To Mob, whose members regularly track down CCTV cars in London, is set to protest outside the council's headquarters, York House, in Twickenham, later this month.
A spokesman from London Motorist Action, another campaign group, called the situation 'scandalous' and said the council had 'unlawfully derived income'.
Mr Wise found discrepancies in the Smart car cameras' registrations after he was fined for parking in Powder Mill Lane, Whitton, last August.
He had his £100 fine thrown out at a parking tribunal hearing after he revealed the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) had not declared the camera that snapped him parked in the road as an 'approved device'.
After the hearing the council blamed the VCA for the administrative error and said all the council's camera cars were 'correctly licensed'. However, it was forced to make a U-turn and pull the cars off the road last week for officers to check documentation.
A council spokesman said officers would now go through documents with 'a fine tooth comb' and were looking into whether they would need to refund motorists.
After Mr Wise's successful appeal, Councillor Clare Head, cabinet member for traffic at the council, confirmed the VCA made a mistake on the paperwork it sent to the authority, adding: 'This is all very frustrating, we believe we lost this case on a technicality.
'We will learn from this mistake and make sure it does not happen again.'
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