A Croydon delivery driver was celebrating after winning an appeal against £120 parking fines incurred by bad signs' in George Street.

Steve Totten, 41, from Plough Lane Close in Beddington was initially fined £40 for parking there while making a delivery in August last year.

The sign read: “Goods vehicles loading only at any time” but when he returned to the van he had a ticket.

The fines soon escalated to £120 and in February, he received a summons to appear in court, where the adjudicator ruled in his favour.

He said: “The parking appeals adjudicator told the council that the street signs were unclear and misleading. I would advise anyone who has been fined there to seek redress by appealing.”

The Council's director of public services Keith Ollier accepts that Mr Totten was fined in error, but pointed out that the two signs on George Street have differing beneficial purposes.

He said: “The loading bays sign is to stop people just sitting there, not loading goods, while the sign at the end of George Street attempts to restrict it to pedestrian use during the day.”

Lorries can only use George Street as a thoroughfare between 9pm and 6am, at other times it is loading only.

He added: “The signs might need rationalising to make them clearer, because the vehicle flow was altered when the tram was put in.