Overzealous traffic wardens tow cars stuck in police murder cordon

Although it meant cars became trapped inside the cordon, it was a vital step in investigating the fatal shooting in Rushcroft Road, Brixton, on Friday night. But it also turned out to be fortuitous for Lambeth's traffic wardens.

Scroll down for more...

Not realising drivers had been forced to leave their cars inside the cordon, the next morning they discovered the vehicles illegally parked.

Simon Bysshe, 25, a TV sound engineer, had his Fiat Punto towed away and had to pay £200 to retrieve it from a Peckham car pound.

He said: "I had left my car in a resident's parking bay, which you are allowed to use after 6.30pm. I went to the cinema and when I came back I wasn't allowed to go in to get it back.

"I returned the next day to collect it but there was just an empty spot where it had been. I told police I thought it had been stolen but it had actually been towed away."

Records show the tow truck came at 8.44am, just 11 minutes after the morning parking restrictions came into force.

Mr Bysshe said: "At the pound there were about 12 other people who had been parked in the surrounding streets and were in the same situation. This should never have happened."

To add to his misery, Mr Bysshe was on a first date at the Ritzy cinema and had planned to give his companion a lift home.

"Because I couldn't get to my car we both had to take the Tube home separately," he said.

"It made a really bad end to our date and I haven't heard from her since."

A spokesman for Lambeth council said: "Police did not tell us they had cordoned off the road until the next day, by which time the traffic wardens had been round. They were just doing their job as normal and there was a breakdown in communication between us and the police. We will be refunding Mr Bysshe."

The spokesman insisted that he was one of only two drivers affected and the other vehicle involved was only clamped.

Lambeth is one of four London councils to have adopted a "softly, softly" approach to parking enforcement following a series of embarrassing incidents involving wardens.

On one occasion, a ticket was placed on a hearse while a coffin was being loaded. In another gaffe, a scooter rider was fined for parking in a council bay, even though it was painted after he arrived. It was reported yesterday that a mother was threatened with a ticket while breastfeeding her baby in a parking bay in Kennington.

The murder victim was Alfred Liverpool, 25, who was shot dead at a flat in Rushcroft Road just after 9.30pm on Friday. Police are hunting four men in connection with the killing. Witnesses describe them as black, aged about 17 and wearing hooded tops, with scarves around their faces.

Detectives from the Met's Operation Trident task force are investigating. An inquest into the death of Mr Liverpool, of Southwark, was due to be opened today.