Drivers face £2,500 fine and three months in jail for simple parking error

Drivers face £2,500 fine and three months in jail for simple parking error
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Ben Chapman

By Ben Chapman


Published: 10/05/2022

- 17:34

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:30

Leaving a vehicle on a private residential street could result in the car owner facing a fee

Drivers could be slapped with a £2,500 fine for making a simple mistake when parking their car.

Leaving a vehicle on a private residential street could result in the car owner facing a fee, despite the fact that parking the vehicle in the first place is not illegal.


A fixed penalty notice or a prosecution could be handed out to anyone who abandons a vehicle, or parts of a vehicle on roads or land in the open air.

The ruling is specified under Section 2 of the Refuse Disposal Act 1978, and it also applies to private land and roads.

Motorists could face a fine of up to £2,500 or three months in prison if they are found guilty.

Authorities must find the owner of any vehicle they want removed to give them seven days' written notice to collect it, before they do it themselves.

If the owner of the vehicle claims it and pays for removal and storage, authorities must then return it to them.

Two motorists in Gloucestershire were recently ordered to pay more than £3,000 in fines and costs as a result of abandoning vehicles on a residential street.

The two vehicles had been left on separate occasions stretching across a six-month period, prompting Cheltenham Borough Council to issue the fines, GloucesterLive reported.

The two men had to pay the full court costs and a victim surcharge totalling £1,370.98, and £2,079.37 respectively as both cases were heard at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court last month.

Mike Redman, the council's director of environment, said: "We are repeatedly asked to deal with abandoned cars and the community are keen for us to catch the people responsible.

"These prosecutions show that where there is evidence the council will issue fixed penalty notices and where appropriate pursue the matter through the courts."

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