Hundreds of drivers can expect refunds for parking fines as Canterbury council today caves in over “face-down ticket” cases.

Fines totalling thousands of pounds are set to be overturned after the authority was forced into a humiliating U-turn.

Motorists hit with a penalty charge notice for displaying legitimate tickets which subsequently flipped face-down on the dashboard can now re-appeal their case.

In a public notice, Canterbury City Council is asking them to get in touch and says “they are likely to have their fine cancelled”.

The authority is prepared to backdate appeals for a maximum of six months - with around 200 motorists thought to be liable for £50 refunds.

Yet hundreds more hit with fines before February this year could be set to complain that their tickets should be torn up too.

Last month it was revealed how council bosses had secretly tried to scrap a policy of discretion in such cases.

The move – which effectively prevented drivers from appealing in such circumstances – has been found unlawful by a tribunal.

Parking chiefs now admit that they made a mistake and say they are bracing themselves to refund the money taken.

Assistant director of direct services Larissa Reed said: “We accept we were wrong to change how we handle appeals for flipped-over PCNs and have now reverted to our former approach.

“From now on, anybody who had a ticket that flipped over but that was valid at the time the PCN was issued should appeal to us. They are likely to have their fine cancelled if it was the first time it happened.”

Spokesman Rob Davies says the authority will consider all cases of PCNs issued under such circumstances from February 1 this year.

“The reason it’s six months back to February 1 is because this is this the maximum period by law in which a PCN can be challenged,” he said.

But Mr Davies has indicated that the council’s change of policy happened as early as April last year.

About 200 motorists are thought to be affected in the last six months, suggesting wardens issued such fines in the city at a rate of more than one a day.

Drivers will have been fined the full £50 on having their appeal automatically refused.

If fully refunded, the error could cost the council around £10,000 for those targeted in the last six months, excluding administrative and legal costs in fighting the tribunal cases.

The council’s U-turn was prompted by the case of a driver who found a PCN slapped on his Audi in St Radigund’s car park in Canterbury city centre – despite him having bought a valid ticket.

Graham Burns was told by the city council that the ticket had flipped upside-down on the dashboard and was therefore not properly displayed.

Even though a unique serial number was clearly visible on the back of the ticket, Mr Burns was told by the authority he could not appeal.

Mr Burns, from Bushyfields Road, Herne, received his PCN in July last year and decided to take his fight to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Adjudicator John O’Higgins concluded that the authority had a legal duty to consider appeals and supporting evidence in “flipped- over” PCN cases.