An 18-year-old IT student has saved British drivers £2million in four months after setting up a free parking appeals website.
More than 86,000 people have launched appeals against council parking fines since August using the website which was set up by Joshua Browder from north London.
Nearly 40 per cent said they had been successful in overturning their £60 parking penalties, according to a poll of people who used the free service.
More than 86,000 people have launched appeals against council parking fines since August using the website which was set up by Joshua Browder from north London
In total, claims amounting to £5.2million were challenged, meaning motorists have avoided paying an estimated £2million since the service was made available on August 24.
Mr Browder said the figure was based on an average fine per person of £60 and that 86,204 had used his >DoNotPay.co.uk< website to launch appeals. Of those, 39.1 per cent said they had been successful according to a poll of users.
The appeals were all against council-imposed fines - but the student plans to expand his website to cover private car parks 'in the near future'.
The appeals were all against council-imposed fines - but the student plans to expand his website to cover private car parks 'in the near future'.
He said statistics showed about 51,000 users accessed the site from London.
Mr Browder, who is currently studying computer science and economics at Stanford University, California, set the site up after after being hit with 30 parking fines in and around Camden in north London.
The 18-year-old said: 'I am shocked that the site has had such a large impact. When I started DoNotPay, I thought that it would help a small handful of family and friends.
'I could never have imagined that it would help reclaim millions in parking fines.
'I am disappointed that the councils are targeting the most vulnerable in our society. The elderly and the disabled are disproportionately receiving unfair tickets.
Mr Browder, who is currently studying computer science and economics at Stanford University, California, set the site up after after being hit with 30 parking fines in and around Camden in north London
'The council has a responsibility to protect these groups rather than target them and it is rewarding to being doing something to work towards that.'
Donotpay.co.uk, which is completely free to use, allows motorists to pick one of 12 reasons of defence, then enter the relevant details and send a custom generated appeal created by the website's algorithm to the council in question.
He said earlier this year: 'I was given parking tickets for trivial reasons. I have had to spend around one hundred hours of valuable study time writing appeals to these tickets, many of which have been successful.
I could never have imagined that it would help reclaim millions in parking fines
'I have come to realise that councils issue tickets first and ask questions later. Unfortunately, many recipients of these tickets don't have the time, legal knowledge or energy to appeal.'
Of the dozens of tickets he was issued, the majority of them were overturned on appeal.
He says motorists can generate appeals in less than a minute and the website ensures drivers have the best possible chance of winning their appeals.
Mr Browder, who taught himself computer coding at 12, created the service after scanning thousands of pages of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and consulting a leading traffic lawyer.
Last year it was revealed motorists paid out more in parking fines with councils accused of 'daylight robbery' as they continued to make a 'profit' from their parking operations, especially in London.
The RAC Foundation said councils in the UK made a £667million surplus from their parking operations in 2013/2014 – marking a 12 per cent increase on the previous financial year and the fifth year in a row of rises.
Motorists in London paid the biggest portion of the money for parking, with the capital accounting for 44 per cent of the total surplus generated over the last year.
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