HARROW Council has wrongly raked in thousands of pounds from a bus and cyclist only lane which was wrongly marked out.

CCTV cameras watch over Camrose Avenue, at the junction of Dale Avenue, issuing close to £1m a year in tickets to motorists who wrongly use the bus and cycle lane.

However, it has emerged the signs on the road were obscured by blundering council workers when they altered a pavement, rendering the tickets void.

The mistake was only revealed after Hendon resident Ed Saleh, with the help of website www.ticketfighter.co.uk, challenged the council through the Parking and Traffic Adjudicator.

And the Harrow Times has discovered the council does not even know how long tickets have been wrongly handed out, because they have no idea when the road markings were damaged.

Mr Saleh, 40, said: “The council was basically ripping everyone off.

“You don't expect a junction like this on a side road – it is serious money the council is making – and they can't even get the signs right.”

The council said it stopped enforcing the junction after Mr Saleh won his appeal, on January 12 this year. But it did not stop handing out tickets when Mr Saleh first raised the problem in November, leading to more than 1,000 motorists being hit with the £120 fine.

And one motorist, Sleyman Mohamed, a 33-year-old courier from Bedford, even had to go through an appeal last month against ten tickets he had been issued for this junction - a month after the council found out it was in the wrong.

Mr Mohamed was facing fines totaling £1,800 but won the appeal after the council failed to show up to defend itself to the adjudicator.

Mr Mohamed said: “I was very worried, it was a nightmare for me because I cannot afford to pay this money.

“They should have given up when they found out they were in the wrong. It is not right to put someone through something like this.”

Although the council has now accepted the adjudicator's ruling and corrected the road markings, it is not planning to pay back the money it erroneously collected.

Cllr Susan Hall, deputy leader of the council, said: “We accept the adjudicator's decision that part of the road marking could not be read because of damage from road repairs, so it was invalid.

The camera enforcement was suspended as soon as we received the adjudicator's decision and we immediately withdrew any pending appeals concerning this location.

“The missing lettering was reinstated last week and restrictions are now back in force.”