THOUSANDS of motorists in the Taunton and Wellington area may have unwittingly paid parking fines they were not obliged to, we reported in August 2008.

And hundreds of penalty notices issued recently looked set to be shredded after it emerged that the wording on the tickets does not comply with the law.

The then district authority Taunton Deane Borough Council, which issued the fines, planned to consider current cases and review the penalty notices.

The discrepancy emerged after Paul Saxton successfully appealed against a £70 fine he received for parking in a taxi rank in Station Road, Taunton.

Mr Saxton, of Roseberry Terrace in Taunton, received the ticket when he pulled over with his engine running to take an “urgent” phone call.

He said: “I challenged it because I was only there three minutes, but the council said it was perfectly valid and I’d have to pay.”

Mr Saxton appealed to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal, and it concluded that the penalty charge notice was “defective and can’t be enforced”.

He said: “I won because the council didn’t give the full information it should have on the ticket.

“Every ticket issued locally must be the same, so they must be illegal as well – there must be any number of people who could get their money back.”

Adjudicator Deborah Gibson found in Mr Saxton’s favour because the ticket did not carry a statement saying the council would consider representations made by the recipient before an enforcement notice was sent.

She said it was insufficient just to imply that the representations would be considered.

A Deane spokesman said officers were surprised by the decision as they believed they

had followed the guidance for councils.

She said: “We’ll take this decision into account in any cases where enforcement action is being taken and we’ll review the wording on the penalty notice.”