Ivan Murray-Smith knows a lot about the business of parking, specifically local authority parking, and sees 'unforgiving' injustice everywhere.

By day the 35-year-old from St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, works in insurance but in his spare time he helps people fend off council-issued parking tickets - often handed out erroneously and without a leg to stand on when they come to court.

His public spirited efforts made headlines across the UK this week when it emerged he had uncovered a systemic loophole in London to do with driving in bus lanes which means pretty much every ticket issued is invalid - as long as you are prepared to take it to tribunal to fight it.

Digging into the details he discovered traffic cameras must be "ministerially approved" by the Home Office in order to be valid sources of evidence against drivers - and most of them are not.

In fact a lot of councils get it wrong, he says, with the large metropolitan ones being particularly "unforgiving".

"There are all manner of rules and regulations that councils are supposed to follow and basically they do not," he said.

"A lot of councils get the law wrong, they do things like put the wrong words on tickets but it is very important they get this right."

He deals with around three to four cases a week - all of which come through an online forum PePiPoo - from all over the country, but has never had one from his home county of Norfolk.

"In our area we do not seem to get anything," he said.

"Maybe parking enforcement is more lax but I do not recall seeing a single ticket in Norfolk."

It all started when he was an economics student in Bristol in 2009.

"They gave me a total of nine parking tickets for parking on a single yellow line, but there was no signage. As it was then there was a specific rule - the sign had to be on the same side of the road.

"They did not agree, but I won. I seemed to know how to deal with these rather well so I started helping people.

"I think it comes from one thing: the council gets to keep the money. With the police they do not pursue tickets because they are motivated by justice. With councils there is a massive financial incentive."

Contact PePiPoo via Facebook.