Council could face fraud investigation for after refusing to refund fines
Ealing Council's refusal to pay back fines on unlawful box junctions could spark a police investigation. A motorist organisation is reportedly looking into the possibility of making a formal complaint over the issue to the police.
The Council initially only agreed to pay out to those who had paid a ticket issued at one of six wrongly marked box junctions in Ealing junctions since Thursday, October 30, following the ruling that the Council is to remove them. It refused to give refunds on tickets issued before that date until it emerged that the council had been told the markings were wrong by the DfT and had to allow refunds dating back to June 20.
The council was ordered to pay costs to First United Busways for 17 tickets which were overturned by a parking adjudicator on appeal. The decision followed several other similar findings by adjudicators in relation to the South Road junction.
And the junctions at St Joseph’s Drive, Cambridge Road, Hamilton Road, Southall High Street junction with Avenue Road, and the Broadway junction with the Mall will all also be removed, as well as the Uxbridge Road junction with Lower Boston Road, in Hanwell.
Adjudicator Gerald Styles told the council representative: “I think the council has got it wrong.
“I am awarding costs on the grounds the council has been wholly unreasonable. It is the disregard of the earlier decisions from which consideration has to flow.”
Campaigners are pushing for councillors to refund all fines paid by drivers since the junctions were put in place in 2004. Motorist's Legal Challenge, an organisation set up to challenge councils over incorrect road markings, are reported to be considering calling in police to investigate Ealing Council on grounds of fraud.
Spokesperson, Jim Douglas, said: "The principles of British law have shown the money is refundable from when it started to be taken unlawfully, and not from when the council was told it was wrong.
"This has been proven in court with banks found guilty of mis-selling policies. They offered to pay back cash from when they discovered products were being mis-sold, but were told to pay back the whole lot.
"We still want the council to admit its mistake and pay back the cash, but until it does this it will have dirty money on its books."
What EalingToday subscribers are saying on the forum
"It was only the financial muscle of the bus companies that allowed an effective challenge to this to take place. Next time the Council will probably waive bus company fines so it is the ordinary motorist who will bear the brunt. It is a measure of how dependent the Council have become on revenue from scams like this that they refused to give it up for so long.
"As for the residents who have had their money taken from them by an illegal scheme the Council say they are not going to give refunds. 'You're not getting your money back' looks set to be the new Council motto."
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"Funny how the Councillors will blame the Govt for something that they had total control over themselves. If there was any doubt then get stuck into it and establish the facts and suspend robbing people until you know it is legal. I support Box Junctions when correctly designed as otherwise Traffic can come to a halt. But the amount of money ripped over locals would indicate that they are a trap in which people can easily fall into."
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December 12, 2008
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