Kingston Council collected more than £8.7m in parking fines using wording now deemed unsuitable by parking adjudicators.

The wording used on the tickets was found not to comply with legislation at a hearing at the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service.

Adjudicator Kevin Moore cancelled a penalty charge notice (PCN) handed out in April and said: “I am satisfied that the PCN is non-compliant in that it does not correctly state and follow regulations.”

Mr Moore called the imprecise wording on the ticket, defining the last day on which a half-price fine could be paid, a “procedural impropriety”.

About 214,000 tickets issued between August 2008 and July this year used the phrase, “before the end of the period of 28 days”, whereas parking regulations say, “not later than the last day of the period of 28 days”.

The fines total was revealed by a freedom of information (FOI) request made by parking campaigner Albert Herbert.

Mr Herbert said: “Why councils cannot simply copy and paste from the legislation what is required to be contained within the text of the PCN is beyond comprehension.

“Clearly, this wording affects thousands of tickets issued since 2008.”

A separate FOI request revealed the council changed the tickets’ phrasing in the first week of November.

A spokesman for Kingston Council said it did not comment on individual cases.