Motorist clocks up record £117,000 of parking fines in just over a year

A MOTORIST clocked up more than £117,000 of parking fines in just over a year.

The rogue Honda driver was given 588 tickets between December 2020 and March 2022.

It equates to almost £200 a ticket — with penalties increasing when they are not paid promptly.

The fines — thought to be a British record — were logged in North London by Islington Council which said it was chasing the driver for payment.

They were the costliest collection of fines for a single driver for breaching traffic rules last year, according to figures released by councils.

In posh Kensington and Chelsea, West London, a Ford Transit van was ticketed more than 400 times last year while parked in exclusive Cadogan Square — but all were paid.

It is thought the £51,120 bill may have been accrued by a builder working in the square — while passing on the cost to his wealthy clients as part of their bill.

Many of the worst offenders were in London but drivers were amassing huge numbers of fines elsewhere.

In Gateshead, the driver of a BMW notched up 701 fines, amounting to £32,926, over three years before bailiffs seized the car.

Officials in Birmingham revealed a driver clocked up £31,739 in tickets, while one in Nottingham ran up £22,200 of fines.

In Brighton & Hove a driver notched up 256 unpaid tickets worth £17,400 in just a year.

Bath and North East Somerset Council said it seized a vehicle and sold it at auction to try to settle a £14,695 debt from 129 tickets.

Wakefield Council in West Yorkshire did the same with a Ford Focus to help clear a £13,609 debt from 121 tickets.

Jack Cousens, from the AA, said: “Clearly it is unacceptable behaviour and ultimately effects law-abiding motorists as councils look to hike the parking charges we all pay in an effort to cover these administration costs.

“A driver who misses one or two tickets may be able to reasonably argue they were unaware of the charges but these demonstrate evasion on an industrial scale.”