Wait, it's worse than that… The Bath Chronicle reports that Ilya Galic drove into the spa town and parked in a pay-as-you-go parking lot. He fed a ticket machine £1.20 ($2.38) for his one-hour stay. The meter only registered £1, missing 20 pence (about 40 cents). Galic complained to the parking attendant, who told him the machines often “went wrong,” and promised to sort out the matter. Just to be sure, Galic phoned the parking office, who told him someone would look it. Last month, Galic received a letter demanding a £353.74 ($701) parking penalty payment. A bailiff turned up at Galic’s house to claim one of the family’s cars as payment for the debt. When Galic asked the bailiff to leave, he called the police. Four policemen arrived at his Newbridge home. The bailiff eventually “settled” for £410.99 ($815.52), around six weeks worth of Galic’s pension income (which covered assorted additional fees). A council spokeswoman was unmoved. The authority had not received any complaints in writing, so that’s that. 

In the past 10 years, more than twenty-five thousand drivers have been caught by a speed camera in Chideock (pronounced ‘Chiddick’). According to the UK's Daily Mail, a location marking one part of the road’s 30mph zone was defined as “Seatown Road.” Problem: there’s no such place. The road’s real name is “Duck Street.” The discrepancy came to light when Alan Dawe appealed his speeding conviction. The judge in the case threw out the ticket, ruling that "We cannot be sure the stretch of road is [speed] restricted.” The Dorset Safety Camera Partnership (DSCP) has admitted that thousands of motorists were fined £60 in error. If all of those drivers appeal, the partnership would owe them £1.5m (U.S. $2.97m). Shouldn't the points be removed from offenders' licenses and the money be refunded automatically? And what about raised insurance premiums? And let me guess where the refunds will come from (now that the money's already spent): taxpayers. Meanwhile, guess what Auto Express discovered when they asked 100 city councils how they were spending the money from a multi-million pound “road safety grant?" Yup, speed cameras.

Hyundai Chairman and CEO Chung Mong-koo was convicted in Korean court for embezzling some $100m in company funds. Thanks to Korea's corporate crime-friendly legal system, Chung didn't spend day one (day woo?) in prison. While Hyundai's profits soared under Chung's leadership, indignant shareholders are baying for blood. Moral outrage? Nah. Hyundai's stock growth slowed to six percent last year in the wake of the scandal, well below the Korean benchmark index of 32 percent in the same period. Chung and his son Eui-son (who heads Kia Motors, so add nepotism to the score card) hoped to deflect public criticism by donating over $1b in stock to the public. Only they haven't done it yet. Most of the funds Chung removed from Hyundai's corporate coffers were spent on a slush fund to bribe public officials, which at least partially explains Chung's continuing freedom. It may also explain why many institutional investors appear to be standing behind Chung. Meanwhile, a minority group of shareholders is preparing a lawsuit claiming damages stemming from embezzlement and other mismanagement. This is so not a good thing.

Perhaps TTAC needs a new category, say "Stupid Car Tricks," where along with Jonny Lieberman's "Man Drives Stolen Car to a Police Station," we could add this: A Korean tourist was robbed at the Days Inn hotel on International Drive in Orlando early Monday morning- because the perps needed money to fill their SUV's gas tank. And according to WFTV, they might have gotten away with it, but they… wait for it… ran out of gas less than a quarter-mile from the crime scene. Police said two men and two women were caught in their "getaway car." Oh and while the police were on their trail, the suspects tried to toss everything they'd stolen out of the window, including the gun they used during the holdup (for better mpg?). With rising gas prices, perhaps the Prius will become the car of choice for criminals seeking that perfect getaway car.

KERO reports that California Sheriff's deputies looking for three suspected drug dealers in the Kern River Valley area ended up searching for their own patrol car instead. Sheriffs said they parked their marked unit behind an abandoned vehicle involved with their investigation. When they came back from searching for the suspects, their cruiser was gone. Sheriff's said it was “tampered with” and then semi-submerged in Lake Isabella, northwest of Bakersfield. One of the men admitted that he was hiding in the abandoned vehicle, but denied he was involved with the patrol car’s immersion. The other two suspected drug dealers were arrested on grand theft auto (amongst other charges). Meanwhile, the “long-awaited fourth installment” of Grand Theft Auto is due to be released on April 29th. Will art imitate life or vice versa?

Everyone knows that when you travel to say, China, and someone offers you an amazing deal on a Swiss watch, you might not be getting the genuine article. Buy a discount Ferrari in Italy though, and you can safely assume you are getting the real deal, right? Wrong. The International Herald Tribune reports that Italy's financial police (?) have broken a ring of Ferrari counterfeiters who had built 14 fake 360 Modenas using, get this, "mostly Pontiacs as their base, but also Mercedes and Toyota." While visions of the notorious "Fiero-rrari" body kits are probably racing through your head, these fakes actually were fairly well done (if equally targeted at the chest-rug sporting crowd). Authorities say that seven of the faux-rraris were sold to people who knew the cars were fake, and simply wanted to impress the neighbors. Said neighbors were sadly unavailable for comment as to the full glory of a late-model Ferrari with the exhaust note of 20-year old Pontiac V6.

Leave it to the Brits to take traffic surveillance to the next level. Worried that drivers may be getting away with violating the car share lane (carpool lane to us Yanks), Leeds is testing a new camera system that actually detects the blood and water content of human skin to determine how many occupants are in the vehicle. BBC reports the system, developed by researchers at Loughborough University, uses two wavelengths of infrared (IR) light and special algorithms to distinguish faces and count heads. If it finds more than one, it lets the car pass. If it detects only one occupant, it takes a photo of the license plate and records date, time and speed. Developers say it's accurate 90 percent of the time– and isn't fooled by large dogs, dummies or cosmetics. They didn't say if the system could be disabled by transmitting an IR signal back at it or if heat reflections from different color cars would affect its accuracy. Or what happens when there's a small child in a carrier in the back seat that may not be in the camera's line of vision. There seems to be several questions they need to address before they start using the system to prosecute solo drivers. But where there's dosh, there's development.

While you were about to enjoy your weekend, a German court found former VW Labor rep Klaus Volkert guilty of 48 counts of incitement to fraud. Forbes reports that Volkert will face nearly three years in prison for his role in a long-running scheme which siphoned $3m in illegal "bonuses" from the German automaker's corporate coffers. Amongst other things, the money covered a $600k hush payment to Volkert's Brazilian lover and first-class international brothel excursions for Volkert and his union cronies (complete with Viagra prescribed by the company medical provider). Court testimony indicates that VW made the payments to ensure labor support for buying Bugatti and Bentley in 1998. "This is a crude case of class justice," Volkert's lawyer pronounced after the ruling. Although Volkert is obviously no working class hero, he may be taking the fall for corruption at the highest levels of VW management. Former Vee Dub exec Klaus-Joachim Gebauer– who received a one-year suspended sentence for his part in the scandal– testified that company Chairman Ferdinand Piech was aware of the "labor relations" slush fund. VW's CEO at the time and current Board Chairman has steadfastly maintained implausible deniability his ignorance of the fund. If Piech was in the dark, it begs the question: why didn't he know?

Your humble correspondent lived in Bath, UK for some four years. The gorgeous Georgian city was home to a huge population of heroin addicts, panhandlers and heroin-addicted panhandlers. Overwhelmed, the local police adopted a 90 percent tolerance policy. So it's no surprise to this journalist that the BBC reports that members of this army of unemployment collectors have organized (if that's the right word) a protection racket, whereby motorists must pay a "donation" or risk having their cars vandalized by their erstwhile guardians. "Motorist Stewart Barratt said: 'I've only refused [to pay] once and I came back to my car and it was damaged, £385 it cost me to put it right. My car had been urinated over, wing mirrors were broken and the wiper blades back and front were ripped off.'" In true "leave it to us" style, the local constabulary's official response is long on qualifications, short on reassurance and stingy with action. A statement from Avon and Somerset Police said: "We are aware of one incident where a motorist was asked for money before somebody urinated on his car. No other incidents have been reported recently."

What starts out as the [now] usual report on the huge number of high-risk sub-prime car loans– "According to Power Information Network, 1.85 of the 9.6 million customers in 2006 who leased or financed a new car were subprime borrowers or consumers with weak credit"– suddenly swerves towards Uh-Oh Town. The CBS5.com report highlights BMW Financial lease holder Vivian Snyder. A salesman inflated Snyder's income ($2500) on her credit application by 150 percent. The reporter then secured the loan application and discovered that "Snyder's income had been changed once again – from $6,000 to $8,600, this time without her knowing. An "8" had been placed before the "6" and "0"s tacked at the end." When confronted, Freemont, CA AutoNation General Manager Larry Long claimed the change had been made in Snyder's presence, and then blamed BMW Financial for approving the lease. "We have investigated this matter internally," Bimmer spokesmouth Martha McKinley insisted. "And we are satisfied that BMW Financial Services acted appropriately at all times during the application and credit review process." Yes, well, AutoNation eventually ate the lease and "according to consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan with Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety the practice is common. 'This is an epidemic of loan applications being falsified. In fact, the model for the meltdown we're seeing in real estate and home mortgage lending was auto lending.'" [thanks to buzzlightyear for the tip]

Apparently there's no "win" in Darwin. So listen, we know it's difficult, but the next time the police confiscate $2,000 in cash from your home while you're being arrested for drug possession, take the bus when you show up at the sheriff's station to demand your cash back. Remember, if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it. If you're Charles Chambers of Anderson, SC however, you're just doomed. That's right dear readers, MSNBC tells us that he rolled into the police station in a stolen car. His plan would have worked perfectly, too, if not for the fact that victims of car theft generally report their cars stolen. And the one Mr. Chambers came rollin' in just happened to fit the description of a vehicle stolen three hours earlier. It didn't help that when the cops pulled him over, Mr. Chambers had to shut the car off with a screwdriver. Hey, at least he's not as dumb as this woman. Wait, no — yes he is.

WFAA reports that police in East Dallas are investigating a road rage shooting early Thursday morning. Two vehicles were apparently attempting to turn onto a road at the same time; shots were fired and two men in one of the cars were struck in the leg by bullets. Meanwhile, WFTV reports that two men in Orange County, FL drove through the eastern end of the county with guns blazing. Louis Davis admitted he opened fire as his six and 11-year-old children watched. According to the former corrections officer, the van ahead “was driving too slow” so "I sped up and got in front of him and he rammed my white Honda, rammed right in the back of it." At some point, the two drivers exchanged gunfire. Police say Davis dropped off the kids, found the van, crouched in a yard and popped-off a few more rounds. "I called 911, but if someone's firing at me, by God I'm going to protect myself and my family.” On the other hand… "'You got bullets flying everywhere. This is ridiculous. I think it's a good thing they have both been arrested,' said Deputy Carlos Padilla, Orange County Sheriff's Office."

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled against Ford Australia in an asbestos related lawsuit. The Geelong Advertiser reports that FoMoCo was "ordered to pay Perth motor mechanic Antonino Lo Presti $840,000 after contracting asbestosis in 2001 from working with brake pads in the 1970s and '80s. The court heard Mr Lo Presti was working in Ford dealerships without protective equipment, ventilation or warnings, long before asbestos was banned in 2003." The ruling– which determined that Ford knew the risks to mechanics but failed to take action– is sure to open the floodgates for a class action lawsuit. If the thousands of motor mechs who worked on Ford's asbestos brake pads Down Under get a fraction of Lo Presti's payout, this one will heavily damage an already sinking ship. 

10News.com reports that someone used a heavy-duty construction loader to drop a 1966 Chevy Nova through a Vista, CA store’s roof. Firefighters discovered the car while investigating a tripped alarm at the industrial park. California Sliding Door Window and Screen suffered water damage from a water line broken by the falling car. The red Nova was parked in the lot next to the building before it was used as a hole punch. “You don’t see a call like this, uh, very often,” said a police officer at the scene. In an associated video, 10News reporter Juliette Vista refers to onlookers as “lookie loos,” and gets this quote from a bystander at the scene: “Either it was a really expensive prank, or somebody’s mad at someone.” Someone’s been watching CSI; you know, other than me.

Yes, I know: that's a bit like asking if Hillary Clinton believes in social Darwinism. But given the amount of grief TTAC receives for its purported "anti-GM' and "anti-Detroit" bias, I want to point out that we avoid editorial decisions that unfairly portray Motown's playas as incompetent. For example, we don't report every Big 2.8 recall (fairness would demand coverage of all recalls). And we take exception to the Detroit News column "Teacher is plagued by theft of 15 Chryslers." Neal Rubin's piece blithely calls Chrysler products "easy pickings." "Historically, says director Terri Miller of Help Eliminate Auto Thefts [HEAT], Chrysler 'has not been as proactive as other automakers at putting standard anti-theft devices in their vehicles.'" That's it? HEAT is a tip line that doesn't break down of thefts by manufacturer. Rubin also unfairly disses Chrysler's customer service. "Among Jenny's suggestions [emailed from Chrysler] was to park in 'lighted areas, garages or neighborhoods without a history of stolen vehicles activity, whenever possible.' 'Great," Fulton fired back. 'Are you going to drive me to work?'" (Nice 'tude.) In his conclusion, the writer casts aspersions on Chrysler's current security systems. "Most of all, she wonders about this new Sentry Key, an ignition immobilizer offered on every Chrysler product except the Dodge Viper since last year. The company says it's foolproof. Says Fulton, 'We'll see.'" I call hatchet job– which is what you won't see here. 

[You are free to discuss TTAC's bias or lackthereof in this thread]