Council faces huge payout to motorists after fined driver points out bus lane warning sign has word missing

Council bosses could end up paying back tens of thousands of pounds of fines after a driver turned loophole-lawyer to get a bus lane penalty quashed.

Derek Brocklehurst, 38, refused to pay the £30 on the grounds that the sign was wrong.



The blue-circle sign is supposed to state that only buses, cyclists and black cabs can use the lane - but the word 'only' was missing. Manchester council admitted there had been a mistake and later corrected the sign.

But Mr Brocklehurst's success could now open the floodgates for other drivers to challenge fines they have already paid after being caught using the lane, outside Victoria railway station.



And the council could be faced with a bill running into hundreds of thousands of pounds after it emerged that in the four month period since the sign was first erected on December 15, a staggering 10,185 notices of prosecution have been sent out.

He said he has already helped get twenty similar cases quashed, and is now urging anyone caught before the sign was corrected to write to Manchester council asking for a refund.