Three men behind attacks on London’s ULEZ enforcement cameras have been sentenced for bouts of vandalism a year on from the controversial scheme’s expansion.
In August last year Mayor of London Sadiq Khan expanded the ULEZ to cover the whole of London, creating the world’s largest pollution charging area.
Motorists in non-compliant vehicles which are not exempt now face a £12.50 daily charge for using London’s roads.
The expansion policy provoked a wave of attacks on enforcement cameras, including using spray paint, bolt cutters, and even explosives.
Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall lost her bid for City Hall after promising to ditch the expansion, and figures released last week reveal more than £322 million in ULEZ fines have been handed out so far.
On August 22, two men from Chingford were sentenced for causing £2712 of damage to a ULEZ camera in the Higham Hill area of Waltham Forest.
A sentencing hearing at Thames magistrates court was told Steven Hislop, 55, of Simmons Lane, and Leonard Guy, 71, of Priory Avenue carried out an attack on the camera on August 7 this year.
The incident happened after a City Hall report declared that the ULEZ expansion was working, but before Bromley Council suggested pollution in the borough had not been lowered.
Hislop and Guy had been carrying a pair of gardening shears on the day of the ULEZ camera damage, and admitted they had intended to cause damage to TfL property.
Both men pleaded guilty to criminal damage and having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.
They were ordered to pay £1356 in compensation each, to cover the cost of the damage, as well each pay a £500 fine, £85 costs, and a £200 victim surcharge
In a separate case, Peter Whibley, 58, of Kingston Road in New Malden, was also sentenced last month at Wimbledon magistrates court for an attack on an ULEZ camera in Tolworth, Kingston-upon-Thames.
He caused £1800-worth of damage to the pole holding the camera, the court heard, and admitted criminal damage on July 5.
Whibley also pleaded guilty to drink driving on the same day, when he was caught at the wheel of a Mercedes with 45 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, over the 35 microgrammes legal limit.
Whibley was banned from driving and fined £120, plus £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
For the Ulez camera attack, he was placed under a year-long community order with 20 days of rehabilitation sessions, but was spared having to pay another fine or compensation for the damage due to “limited means”.
Electrician Joseph Nicholls, 43, of Foots Cray High Street, Sidcup, has admitted encouraging ULEZ camera damage in a Facebook post, and he is due to be sentenced this week.
Woolwich crown court heard he also sent a threatening email to Yunex Traffic, a contractor used by Transport for London to run the Mayor’s clean air scheme.
And in a fourth criminal case, three men are accused together of causing £10,000 of damage to a ULEZ camera in Greenwich.
Darren Levitt, 46, Lloyd Dunsford, 65, and Phillippe L’Olive, 34, have been jointly charged with criminal damage on September 5 this year.
All three men are also accused of having articles with intent to destroy or damage property the following day in Welling, in Bexley.
It is said they had a circular saw, a blow torch, tagging spray, cutting tools, walkie talkies, balaclavas and gloves, according to charges laid at Bromley magistrates court.
All three appeared in court on September 7, when they were given bail on the condition they are not carrying tools in public unless travelling to and from work.
No pleas have been entered, and they are back in court on October 11.
