Police rack up £900 a day in parking tickets and speeding fines

Police drivers in London are fined almost £900 every day for offences including parking illegally, speeding and ignoring bus lanes.

The Metropolitan Police paid £325,563 in vehicle fixed penalty notices in the last financial year. The figure, revealed in new budget documents, was an increase of a third on the previous year when police coughed up £245,377 in fines.

Penalties were imposed because of illegal parking, speeding, driving in bus lanes, red route offences and driving the wrong way up one way streets.

Tickets issued to the drivers of vehicles responding to emergencies or on operations are cancelled by Transport for London and local authorities.

But there are no exemptions for police drivers caught breaking the law in other circumstances.

The Metropolitan Police said senior officers are working with local authorities in the capital to try to reduce "unwarranted" fines.

A spokeswoman said one problem is the number of unmarked hire vehicles used by officers can make it difficult to trace the circumstances of a fine.

It is understood that some fines are paid out of the pockets of the officers and staff concerned, but senior officers deal with penalties on a case-by-case basis.

The Metropolitan Police has a huge fleet of about 5,000 vehicles ranging from small patrol cars to diggers and recovery trucks.

The vast majority are operational vehicles with only a small number of top ranking officers given the use of a company car.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "The number of fines paid on Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) has increased in the last financial year.

"There are factors which may contribute to this, for example the increase in our fleet size.

"In particular, the number of unmarked hire and lease vehicles which would not be recognisable to the council when on covert operations.

"FPNs include offences such as bus lane offences, parking tickets, offences in restricted areas, yellow box junction offences, driving the wrong way up a one-way street and red route offences.

"We are currently working with the local authorities to reduce the level of unwarranted FPNs received for officers on operational duties."

In London, parking fines vary between £60 and £120 depending on the seriousness of the offence and the borough, with a 50 per cent discount for early payment.