Parking ticket crusader faces selling his home after losing £40,000 legal fight against council over bays and signs

  • Barry Moss successfully appealed against dozens of tickets for friends, family - and even strangers
  • He argued parking bays and signage did not comply with regulations
  • But when he took council's auditors to court, he lost the case
  • Now they are asking him to sell his house to pay £40,000 costs plus interest

By Louise Eccles for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:


A grandfather could be forced to sell his home to pay £40,000 in legal costs after losing a High Court battle over parking tickets.

Barry Moss launched a one-man crusade against his local council and successfully appealed against dozens of tickets for friends, family – and even strangers.

The retired roofer argued that Bolton Council’s parking bays and signage did not comply with Department for Transport regulations. But when he took the council’s auditors, KPMG, to the High Court to claim some of the authority’s income had therefore been obtained illegally, he lost the case.

Costly defeat: When Barry Moss took the council's auditors to court to argue that parking bays and signage did not comply with regulations, he lost the case

Costly defeat: When Barry Moss took the council's auditors to court to argue that parking bays and signage did not comply with regulations, he lost the case

Now, KPMG’s solicitors have said he must sell his four-bedroom home in order to recover £40,000 costs, plus interest.

Mr Moss, 66, said he was being punished for standing up for motorists. He added: ‘It would be terrible if we had to sell the house because my wife Aline and I built it ourselves in 1993. It means everything to us.

‘I regret taking them to court now because of all the stress and anxiety it is causing my wife, but I know it was the right thing to do. What these councils are doing is wrong.’

The father of three appears in a BBC1 documentary tonight which follows several people who have taken on Britain’s councils over parking fines. Parking Mad also includes a man who challenged £80,000 of parking tickets and a masked motorcycle gang which roam London’s suburbs alerting drivers to CCTV camera cars, which catch people driving in bus lanes or breaching no left or right-turn restrictions.

Standing up for motorists: Mr Moss features in a documentary which follows several people who have taken on councils over parking fines (file picture)

Standing up for motorists: Mr Moss features in a documentary which follows several people who have taken on councils over parking fines (file picture)

Mr Moss began his campaign after he received a parking ticket five years ago for over-staying in a pay-and-display parking bay by four minutes when he had been delayed with an injured knee.

He appealed but was apparently told by Bolton Council that, unless an ambulance had been called, he would have to pay the fine.

Two months later, fuelled by the refusal, he successfully appealed his nephew’s parking ticket on the grounds that the markings near a new roundabout were confusing.

‘But that wasn’t enough for me’, he said. ‘I wanted refunds to be given to the other people who had been fined in that spot too, which they later got.’

As news of his appeals began to spread, he received requests for help from people all over the country. ‘I did lots of research and found councils everywhere were issuing tickets illegally,’ he said.

The documentary claims councils are issuing more parking tickets than ever. It estimates they raised more than £700million in revenue last year from parking tickets.

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