Bolaji Oyegunle, London: Nigerian diplomats in London owe the British government £3.8 million, about N21 million in parking and congestion fines.
Foreign Secretary, William Hague told House of Commons that foreign diplomats owe the British taxpayer a whopping £67million in fines for dodging the congestion charge.
Hague released the figures in the annual statements of outstanding fines, penalties and taxes not paid by foreign embassies.
He however, said his officials had met with foreign missions concerned and asked them to pay outstanding fines or appeal against them.
According to the breakdown, the United States embassy is the worst culprit with 63,000 tickets running into £7.27million, followed by Russia with a unpaid bill of £4.89million bill.
Also in the defaulters league is Japan with a bill of £4.85million and closely followed by Nigeria at £3.8million.
The statement further added that Diplomats owed a further £344,747 in parking fines for London alone last year.
According to the Foreign Secretary, 12 very serious offences were recorded against foreign embassy staff in 2012, citing three Russians arrested for drink-driving.
Another one was a Bangladesh said to have abused a domestic worker and a Tanzanian diplomat who was accused of assault.
“When instances of alleged criminal conduct are brought to our attention by the police, we ask the relevant foreign government to waive diplomatic immunity where appropriate. For the most serious offences, we seek the immediate withdrawal of the diplomat, Hague told Commons”.
A ‘parking ticket or fine’ is a penalty charge issued when a driver parks a car in contravention of a parking control or commits a moving traffic contravention.
Such offender can either be served as a yellow ticket at the time of the contravention or by post if the Civil Enforcement Officer was prevented from serving it on the vehicle.
