Would I Lie to you?

Southwark Council in London have just releas ed information about some of the, unsuccessful, reasons given for contesting parking and traffic fines. I think the first prize for originality, inventiveness and perhaps just plain optimism must go to a driver who ticketed for driving in a bus lane. The driver was seen on camera to veer into a bus lane to avid a traffic queue. However, when he got the £120 ticket he appealed it on the grounds that, wait for it, "he was 'forced' to swerve into the bus lane to avoid an alien spaceship which was 'hurtling towards him". The straight faced appeals service rejected the appeal on the grounds that no UFO had been seen on the camera. Apparently allegations of this type do not require a drugs test.

In another case a driver claimed that since he was colour blind he thought that the yellow no waiting marking were blue and so it was OK to park. We have yellow lines, we have red lines and they all mean don't park. We don't have blue lines but a nice though ultimately stupid try.